API: Industry welcomes BLM’s revised rule to prevent waste and conserve domestic resources

WASHINGTON, September 18, 2018 – API welcomed the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) release today of the revised Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) waste prevention rule.

“We support smart, cost effective BLM regulations that focus on prevention of waste and the conservation of resources,” said API Upstream and Industry Operations Group Director Erik Milito. “As a result of continued industry innovation across the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, methane emissions have plummeted 14 percent since 1990 during the same period that natural gas production has increased more than 50 percent. Driven by greater use of natural gas, emissions from power generation continue to decline and air quality continues to improve.”

As noted in API comments filed earlier this year, the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 authorizes venting and flaring restrictions for the purpose of preventing “undue waste” of federal mineral resources.  The 2016 Rule improperly reached far beyond this authority, duplicating the efforts of EPA and state regulators. 

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and nearly 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 600 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 47 million Americans.