Western Colorado Congress projects the cost to taxpayers by the BLM’s inaction on the methane waste rules.
Since Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Land Management wouldn’t hold public hearings on their proposal to gut the rules limiting methane venting, flaring, and leaking, Western Colorado Congress decided to take matters into their own hands.
A group of people gathered in the falling darkness in downtown Grand Junction, Colo., for a public meeting of their own. They projected a giant “methane waste ticker” across the front of the Wayne Aspinall Federal Building. The three-story image of methane flares, the words “Value of gas wasted on public lands”, and giant numbers constantly ticking upward of $1.9 Billion in surprising large increments.
“We’re projecting on this image behind us just how much money taxpayers are losing every second that the BLM methane waste reduction rule has not gone into effect,” Emily Hornback, staff director at Western Colorado Congress, said in the Facebook Live post during the event. (Watch the video.)
“All of the public input that has gone into this has been ignored,” Kristin Winn of Citizens for Clean Air added. “There are millions of Americans who would like to see this resource captured and not wasted through venting and flaring.”
The methane waste rule has been on the books since 2016, but Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, backed up by the current administration, has tried multiple times to delay or pause the rule, only to be defeated by WORC and its allies in court. Zinke and company are rewriting the rule to gut the protections that groups like Western Colorado Congress fought hard to put in place.
While the BLM has refused to hold public hearings on the new proposed rules, they are accepting comments until April 23, 2018. Join us in asking Secretary Zinke to keep the protections of the 2016 rule in place by clicking HERE.
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