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EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

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Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#181
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people helped by something not happening don't put huge amounts of money into Republican politics and companies that have to 'properly' [0] dispose of their toxic byproducts have money to spend. It's a problem with collective action on a lot of climate problems in particular; the benefits are in the future and dilute while the costs are concentrated and immediate. Because of that there's a LOT of money availa…

Environmental harm should be one place where the corporate veil should be pierced and people should be held personally liable for their actions and decisions. If someone dumped tons of deadly chemicals into a river for no reason, and those actions resulted in the long-term deaths of thousands, they'd go to jail. But if that person does the same thing for profit, as an executive of a massive conglomerate, nothing happ…

A big issue with pollution cases is it's hard to definitively prove that some pollution event cause a particular person's disease so there's always long drawn out suits where the corporations hold a majority of the power because they have so much more money.

As for piercing the veil it's rarely super clear that someone high up actually forced the pollution to happen. All the internal policies and emails usually say the right thing but the incentives, pressures and money all put pressure to people down the ladder to skirt the rules the inevitably leads to disaster.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coal use has collapsed in the US too entirely for economic reasons, but it doesn't stop the politicians from making ads about how liberals are coming for your jobs because they hate your way of life and airing them constantly in rural areas.

The Right was smart to latch onto coal. It will never come back, so they can complain about it forever. We all know that they love to sell nostalgia. And their target demographic isn't too interested in facts, so they'll never learn the reality that it was deregulation lead to a natural gas boom, which lead to the free market dealing the death blow to coal. So they can keep selling evil job killing regulations as the…

> "Renewables get the headlines, but those coal plants are mostly being replaced with natural gas ones."

Not true in the UK. Natural gas use has also declined, albeit only slightly, in recent years. There has also been a net loss of capacity in the past decade as more old NG plants have closed than new ones built.

Meanwhile, coal, which produced 42% of all UK electricity as recently as 2012, has almost gone to zero while renewables (the bulk of which is offshore wind) are at 37% - and growing every year.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get rested and get ready, under either Trump or Biden, the level of unrest and discontent will be much higher than it was. We will win eventually, but it will look like a slow incremental climb with sudden set backs, followed by bursts of energy and further set backs and crises, until suddenly and shockingly we take power. That's how it always goes.

Violence including riots and political assassinations have massively decreased from the 1960s and 1970s and overall life satisfaction has increased. I realize a revolutionary tone is in the current zeitgeist but it's unlikely to persist if Biden wins. Bernie's hilariously one sided defeat is perhaps the best indicator that most people don't agree with a radical future for the US.

Bernie’s defeat is an indicator that the Democratic Party has no appetite for someone who isn’t an insider, and older voters prefer the status quo. This is clear from exit polls, and is no surprise. Progress occurs one funeral at a time, some people will never change their belief and value systems.

One needs only to look back at the last 100 years of the United States both to see how far we’ve come and far we have to go.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#184
post #157

Dr. Peter Carter, an IPCC expert reviewer, provides one of the most concise and sobering summaries of the trajectory of our planet as methane and carbon emissions continue to rise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa13KrOvE2s It's one of the first things I think about when I read articles like this that demonstrate that not only are the powers that be not taking climate change seriously, they are actively accelerating…

If you are one of the powers that be, and probably are of the ruling generation with 20-40 years left to live, why wouldn't you accelerate your gain? These people in positions of power don't care about the long term, because they will be dead by then, but will be able to realize that short term gain in their limited lifetime. The only way to tackle climate change is to force politicians to sell all private assets and…

I like your desire to restrain politician's incentives, & watching folks like Joe Biden takes these kind of steps (selling all his stocks thirty years ago) is a good thing to do.

At the same time it seems wholly insufficient. Whether Betsy DeVos has stocks is not really that relevant, when she still is going to act on behalf of her ultra-rich clan & other extremely well-monied interests.

I'm all for raising standards but I think there's a huge continent of politician who exist only to be bad guys, & some large large amount of people seem to love them for their wretchedness.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Right was smart to latch onto coal. It will never come back, so they can complain about it forever. We all know that they love to sell nostalgia. And their target demographic isn't too interested in facts, so they'll never learn the reality that it was deregulation lead to a natural gas boom, which lead to the free market dealing the death blow to coal. So they can keep selling evil job killing regulations as the…

> "Renewables get the headlines, but those coal plants are mostly being replaced with natural gas ones." Not true in the UK. Natural gas use has also declined, albeit only slightly, in recent years. There has also been a net loss of capacity in the past decade as more old NG plants have closed than new ones built. Meanwhile, coal, which produced 42% of all UK electricity as recently as 2012, has almost gone to zero w…

Sorry, I thought it was clear that my comments were specific to the USA, where 103 out of 121 coal plants decommissioned since 2011 have been replaced with natural gas plants.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Natural-Gas-Has-Replaced-Ov...

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#186
post #116
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money (generally) doesn't buy elections.[1][2] [1] https://freakonomics.com/2012/01/12/does-money-really-buy-el... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_the_Rational_Voter

Yes correlation != causation. As vkou noted, it's who gets to pick the candidates that matters, which leaves us to pick between a giant douche or a turd sandwich.

A lot of candidates are chosen via the primary not business elites sitting in back rooms choosing candidates.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#187

Dr. Peter Carter, an IPCC expert reviewer, provides one of the most concise and sobering summaries of the trajectory of our planet as methane and carbon emissions continue to rise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa13KrOvE2s It's one of the first things I think about when I read articles like this that demonstrate that not only are the powers that be not taking climate change seriously, they are actively accelerating…

It not just the power that be, but even the advocates in the green movement are pushing for the idea that natural gas is a suitable transitional solution until unset date in the future. Stopping climate change is not the highest priority for any group that has political power, which leaves scientists and onlookers.

Fossil fuels should really be banned from the energy grid and the date should be set well before any newly fossil fueled plant can regain enough of it investment to be profitable.

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#188
post #132

I suggest changing the headline to "outgoing administration continues to sabotage government for next administration as popularity continues to decline during incompetent response to viral pandemic". Another example of something that was so important they waited until less than 3 months before the election to do it. It hardly needs saying, but this is devastatingly bad environmental and climate policy.

You need to get out of your bubble more. Automatically painting the other side as stupid is why the Democrats lost in 2016 (i.e. "deplorables"). It only drivers those voters to the other side.

[deleted]

Re: EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas

#189
post #14

>It’s very hard to understand why As republican former secretary of the interior James Watt put it, “Why worry about the environment when the second coming is at hand?”

I can't find a source for this quote and it slightly contradicts other things he said: https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_G._Watt

It was in the Washington Post at the time but I don’t know if I can find the link. Long time ago (Reagan era).

Edit: Yes WaPo, May 24, 1981. Pre-www, so no link.

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