Health Care/Joan Retsinas

Methane and You

Methane. You may not know what it is. You may not care. Like Hamlet, you may think, “What is methane to me, or me to methane that I should care?” A nerdy worry for the nerdy.

The bad news about methane is that, while by itself it is not toxic, it displaces oxygen. Breathe too much methane-laden air, and you will have headaches, nausea, and vomiting. If the oxygen levels in the air plummet too low, you can die.

When oil and gas tanks leak, methane leaks out. That leakage is inevitable. The good news, until recently, is that an activist government, a.k.a. Uncle Sam, was bent on protecting our air, bent on lowering methane levels.

The Environmental Protection Agency, under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, insisted that companies test emissions, monitor for leaks in the lines, and make repairs. In addition, drillers sometimes find pockets of methane: the solution is to vent them in “flares,” letting the gas burn off. The EPA moved to cut back on flaring. The Climate Action Plan had an audacious goal: by 2025, scientists would measure 40 to 45 percent reduction in dangerous emissions, from 2012 levels.

No surprise: the oil and gas companies found those EPA regulations expensive. How much cheaper simply to let methane into the air. When citizens worried about greenhouse gases, the executives would scream: “jobs!” as though the economy and the air were at war: cleaner air presaged economic depression.

Rhetoric aside, the two – the air and the economy – are not diametrically opposed. Colorado, for instance, has seen its methane levels drop, while its economic indices have risen.

In normal times, the EPA would have continued with its regulations. After all, since all of us – Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Immigrants, even CEOs – breathe oxygen into our lungs, methane is a problem. Indeed, along with carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, methane contributes to climate change, or “ global warming”.

Until recently, most citizens didn’t fret unduly about methane. Uncle Sam was being as avuncular as he could, in an economy dependent on oil and gas.

Enter this new administration, this new president. Either he scorns the wisdom of the scientists, he discounts the reality of climate change, he loathes any initiative that President Obama pushed, or he simply doesn’t care. Whatever his rationale, he has pushed to loosen the restrictions on methane, with small yet crucial changes: companies used to have 30 days to repair leaks; they now have 60 days. Companies tested emissions every six months; they can now go two years, even longer. The EPA is expected to review its restrictions on flares. And if a state, like Texas, has laxer rules than the federal government – no problem! The state prevails.

Looking ahead to the year 2025, one estimate holds that the oil and gas companies will save almost $500 million. For CEOs who must breathe the air, and for their children who inherit a planet more prone to temperature changes, the victory is Pyrrhic.

This decision, though, goes beyond discussions of methane. It goes to the heart of government: Do we see government as protecting us? As bolstering big business? As balancing competing interests? In the past, we embraced government’s role as protective: the grab-bag of regulations, the alphabet agencies, the hodgepodge subsidies all aimed to ease the lives of citizens, particularly the ones who were not prospering, the ones left behind in economic downturns and upturns. Of course Uncle Sam has helped the business sector: a country with a dead economy is simply dead. But Uncle Sam has not eagerly bolstered it at the callous expense of the citizenry.

Crucially, this president has changed the mandate of Uncle Sam. He is now the wingman of whatever corporate interest gets the president’s ear. This president has made the government not our protector, but our enemy.

Joan Retsinas is a sociologist who writes about health care in Providence, R.I. Email retsinas@verizon.net.

From The Progressive Populist, November 1, 2018

Populist.com