Choices, Consequences and Congress
POSTED: Tim Rumage - Planetary Ethicist • 02.09.2017 • no comments
Last week Congress set about the task of repealing one set of regulations aimed at keeping streams safe from coal mining impacts and another to reduce liabilities of escaped methane. The coal industry would have to monitor water quality before, during and after mining activities, and if water quality went down, the mining companies would have to restore the stream to its previous quality/viability/verdancy. The natural gas/fracking operations would have to reduce loss of “fugitive” natural gas from leaks, venting and flaring (the intentional burning off of natural gas). Those operations would incur the increased cost of monitoring for leaks, fixing leaks, and for capturing – not flaring – natural gas.
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