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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.

EPA Finalizes Methane Rules

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Friday, May 13, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized new federal rules to cut methane emissions from new sources. The EPA says the rules will reduce 520,000 tons a year of methane emissions by 2025, producing climate benefits worth almost $700 million.

The gas and oil industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the nation. According to Joe Minott, executive director and chief counsel of the Clean Air Council, this is the first time the EPA has established rules for methane emissions from an industrial source.

"EPA needs to get a lot of credit for finally tackling a greenhouse gas that is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period," Minott said.

Oil and gas producers say the rules are unnecessary because the industry already has reduced emissions by almost 79 percent since 2005.

The EPA said the new standards also will reduce emissions of other pollutants, such as smog-forming compounds and toxics linked to a variety of serious health issues, including cancer. But Minott said he is concerned that the new rules won't apply to existing sources.

"That's having a profound impact on the quality of life and the health of people that live next to the existing infrastructure," he said.

Last month, Pennsylvania's independent Regulatory Review Commission approved new state rules that would apply to existing gas and oil wells. Minott said the state rules impose standards on existing facilities that are similar to the EPA's rules for new and modified structures.

"It's going to have a profound impact on local communities that are hosting the infrastructure," he said, "and on trying to slow down climate change."

Some state legislators have introduced a resolution to block the new state rules from going into effect.

More information is online at epa.gov.


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