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Trump suffers first defeat but as always doubles down for the next fight; From Ohio to Azerbaijan: How COP29 could shape local farming; Funding boosts 'green' projects in Meadville, PA; VA apprenticeships bridge skills gaps, offer career stability.

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Trump has a new pick for Attorney General, his incoming "border czar" warns local Democratic officials not to impede mass deportation, and the House passes legislation that could target any nonprofit group accused of supporting terrorism.

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The health of rural Americans is getting renewed attention from the CDC, updated data could help protect folks from flash floods like those devastated in Appalachia, and Native American Tribes want to play a key role in the nation's energy future.

Feds Propose Rolling Back Climate Change Protections

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Friday, August 30, 2019   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Oil and gas companies will no longer have to put in pollution controls that help in the fight against climate change – if a revised rule announced by the feds on Thursday is finalized.

The Environmental Protection Agency is revising the Obama-era Methane Waste Rule, which required companies to capture excess methane rather than burn it or let it escape into the air. Mitch Jones, climate and energy program director with Food and Water Watch, says methane is a destructive greenhouse gas.

"Over a 20-year period, methane traps 86 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide does,” says Jones. “Those emissions are really forcing short-term rapid heating and making climate change much worse."

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, himself a former energy lobbyist, defended the change, saying it lifts an unnecessary burden on the oil and gas industry. A 60-day public comment period on regulations.gov will commence once the rule is published in the Federal Register.

Jones says some oil and gas companies actually didn't want the rule rolled back, because it allowed them to claim that their operations are climate-conscious.

"They're actually using the existing rule to greenwash a climate-destroying product, which is fracked gas,” says Jones.

California has a large oil-and-gas industry that is spread across 10 counties but is most active in the central valley. Studies have linked methane pollution to increased incidence of low-birthweight babies and respiratory disease in communities upwind of fossil-fuel facilities.


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