Trump's Methane Rollback That Big Oil Doesn't Want
The rule would end Obama-era restrictions on emissions of methane, a potent climate-warming gas. The move could make it harder to argue that natural gas is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal.
Despite opposition from the oil and gas industry it aims to help, the Trump administration later Thursday is expected to roll back an Obama-era rule designed to reduce climate-warming methane emissions.
Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. But when it's released before it burns, say from a leaky valve at a drilling, the oil and gas industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the United States.
