Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, BLM's Methane and Waste Prevention rule really is an overreach of authority that is already held by the EPA and the States. In fact, in North Dakota, the Department of Mineral Resources has waste prevention or conservation rules in place and is the first in the Nation to set gas capture requirements and goals. Requiring operators to meet yet another set of rules, in addition to States' permits, results in substantial increases in both time and cost without any additional benefit to the public or to the environment, and that would also subject operators to conflicting rules, which actually could have the adverse effect that this rule aims at. Just in North Dakota alone, it is estimated this rule would cost $24 million in lost tax revenue, and $240 million per year would be lost in production, but $39 million, most importantly, would be lost in royalty revenues, not to big, rich oil companies who make large contributions, as our friends on the other side like to talk about, but to regular people, farmers and ranchers and landowners who own the royalty, who get the royalty. These are the very people the Democrats love to talk about but don't seem to know how to talk to. Methane leaks are wasteful, but there is a natural incentive to capture it. Methane is not a waste product, it is a commodity. The overall, best-case scenario impact of this rule would be a reduction of 0.06 percent.…”