Carrie Jenks, EELP executive director and a faculty participant in the Harvard Salata Initiative on Reducing Global Methane Emissions, co-authored a new policy paper reviewing recent U.S. regulations aimed at reducing methane emissions and the Trump Administration’s major options for modifying or reversing these regulations. The paper, Will Trump Mend or End Federal Methane Rules?, was published in January by the Center for Energy and Environmental Systems Analysis, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. Co-authors are Kevin Book (ClearView Energy Partners), Ben Cahill (University of Texas at Austin), Kyle Danish (Van Ness Feldman LLP), and Bob Stout (Duke University and University of Texas at Austin).
The paper reviews in some detail recent U.S. regulations; complexities associated with attempts to repeal these regulations; options for modifying the rules; the impact of the emerging international regulatory regime — especially European Union rules on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) — on U.S. rulemaking; and industry’s attitudes toward methane regulations and their possible repeal or modification.