Re: Feb. 4 guest commentary.
Arguments by the Western Energy Alliance against the rule cutting methane emissions from oil and gas operations on public lands don’t hold up. The organization says the Bureau of Land Management isn’t authorized to regulate air quality, but the point of the rule that Congress is now trying to repeal is to conserve natural resources belonging to all Americans.
A 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that as much as $23 million in royalty revenue was lost annually through venting, flaring and leaks from oil and gas equipment on public and tribal lands. The BLM should be making sure Americans get a fair return.
If pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, all the better. And Colorado, whose methane regulations provided the basis for the federal rule, has shown that cutting waste is good economics. An industry is growing up around businesses with the know-how to detect and capture methane.
Kate Zimmerman, Denver
The writer is a policy director for the National Wildlife Federation.
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