Comment on FR Doc # 2026-12738
AnonymousOpposeIndividual
Summary: An individual is opposing the proposed modifications to royalty regulations for lost oil and gas. They argue that the changes would lead to more methane being flared or released, which harms public health and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
I am writing to oppose the proposed changes to rules about oil and gas loss. The public should be doing all we can to ensure that methane is not wasted by being flared or released into the atmoshere. In either context this represents a wasted resource and we are thus allowing money to be set on fire. When methane is allowed to escape into the atmosphere it become a hazardous air pollutant in a local/regional sense and thus impacts the health of local communities. Many oil and gas wells are located close enough to schools and residential communities for these impacts to be felt. In addition, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with roughly 20 times the warming potential, per molecule, than CO2. Thus we should be doing all we can to prevent methane from leaking into the environment.