If people feed cattle seaweed, they produce 98 percent less methane gas. Now, that sounds like a gargantuan project. Haul every cow to a tropical coast, suit them up in diving gear, teach them how to breathe through their oxygen link, and graze them on Asparagopsis taxiformis. Alternatively, this specific type of seaweed could be brought to our bovine brethren and sisters, according to NPR. But President Joe Biden is going down a different path right now.
Donald Trump slashed and burned his way through President Barack Obama’s regulations. Senate Democrats have introduced a resolution to roll back a Trump-era rule that limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate methane.
Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Angus King (I-ME) have already drafted their bill. It would use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that lets Congress cancel any regulation “finalized in the previous 60 legislative days.” They plan to cancel out Trump’s methane rule, according to The Hill.
These two senators believe that when Trump dropped that regulation, it was just aide “to the oil and gas industry, which leaks heat-trapping methane during production.” Senator Heinrich released a statement that read:
“In the wake of the Trump administration, there are very few Clean Air Act protections left in place to limit emissions of dangerous methane pollution from the production, processing, transmission and storage of oil and gas in the United States.’
Trump claimed that the methane rule he rescinded just got rid of the redundancy. Environmentalists disagreed. They were alarmed:
‘[Methane significantly more harmful to the planet than carbon dioxide’
According to some studies, methane is “80 times more likely to trap that…change-linked trapping heat in the atmosphere in the first 20 years than carbon dioxide is.” King also released a statement that read:
‘When it comes to steps we can take to address climate change, limiting methane emissions is the low-hanging fruit.’
‘The gas traps an immense amount of atmospheric heat significantly more than carbon dioxide — and is relatively cheap and easy to capture. That’s why it was so dangerous when the previous administration neglected their responsibility to protect the planet, putting the short-term interests of polluters over the long-term interests of the planet we will leave to our children and grandchildren. It’s critical that Congress rolls back last year’s environmental sabotage, and reinstates rules limiting methane emissions.’
The Democrats can overturn a regulation as long as they use the CRA (Congressional Review Act), which is an “oversight tool that Congress may use to overturn rules issued by federal agencies,” according to The CRA Report.Â
Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) want to use the CRA to implement a “resolution of disapproval for a rule weakening the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Scott Peters (D-CA), and Conor Lamb (D-PA) plan to introduce an identical resolution in the House.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
