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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: BLM Methane Rule to Benefit State Coffers, San Juan Basin

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Friday, April 29, 2016   

SANTA FE, N.M. - Despite oil and gas industry concerns, the Bureau of Land Management's proposed methane waste rule is expected to have a beneficial effect in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, according to a new study.

The Conservation Economics Institute report, released this week, said reducing methane leakage and waste from rigs on public and tribal lands will both significantly cut methane pollution and increase the state's royalty revenues.

Jon Goldstein, senior energy policy manager for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the BLM rule is expected to benefit even the owners of low-producing wells in the region.

"The biggest center of that production is on the New Mexico side of the basin, although there is significant gas production from the Colorado side too," he said. "What this new study found is that this BLM waste rule that's been proposed would have actually a net positive impact."

Owners of low-producing wells in the basin have complained that the cost of compliance with the new rule would be too high. However, the study shows that by selling the captured methane, the new revenue will keep the cost for even marginal producers to less than 1 percent.

Goldstein said the BLM rule would likely increase the state's royalty revenues from the San Juan Basin alone by from $1 million to $6 million a year, depending on future gas prices. He said reducing the massive methane "hot spot" over the basin also will produce improvements for the region's air quality and environment.

"The American Lung Association also came out with their annual 'State of the Air' report last week," he said, "and they found that San Juan County in New Mexico got an 'F.' It failed for ozone pollution."

Goldstein said the San Juan Basin currently accounts for only 4 percent of U.S. gas production, but generates 17 percent of the country's overall methane loss. The BLM's natural-gas waste rule will likely be implemented later this year.

The report is online at conservationecon.org.


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