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A comment on EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas. Parent comment

Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by jcranmer on Monday August 10, 2020 @03:07PM (#24112855)
My grandfather grew up on a farm and, late in life, retired to a farm. Well, a large portion of the property was a swamp, and if he had his way, he would have tiled that swamp, drained it, and grown corn. But the EPA wouldn't let him, since it was destroying wetlands. So he fulminated against the EPA for not letting him do what he wanted with his land.

And that's why there's a lot of people who hate regulations, especially environmental regulations. They have a very concrete harm from the regulations that they can see (they can't do certain actions), and the benefits are not so easily noticed. Labor regulations, where the benefits are much more easily visible and relatable are likely to have higher support, although I suspect that a large rural constituency wouldn't mind seeing child labor laws repealed.

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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by JoshTriplett on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:32PM (#24113661)
There's a huge difference between controlling what people do on their own land, and controlling how people affect the broader ecosystem. Burning oil or gas and affecting the atmosphere for everyone is a much larger-scale issue than a local wetland.

(And if you're told you can't turn a swamp into a field, for example, you also ought to get paid for effectively having to maintain a public resource.)

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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by gamblor956 on Monday August 10, 2020 @08:46PM (#24116041)
Why should the public have to pay you if you bought a farm knowing a lot of it wasn't usable as a farm?
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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by JoshTriplett on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:38PM (#24116661)
The original comment didn't include that information; that came out later in the thread. The comment implied that the notification happened after it was already owned, as an added restriction.
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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by ultrarunner on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:38PM (#24113711)
What I don't understand is how that isn't a taking.
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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by trothamel on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:36PM (#24113689)
They didn't pay him for the reduced value of his land, did he? I think that's a lot of the problem with these regulations - the government requires people to abide by them, but does not compensate for them.
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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by jcranmer on Monday August 10, 2020 @04:54PM (#24113866)
The wetlands predated his ownership of the land, and I think the regulations also predated that as well too.

Actually, the local village did offer to buy all the wetlands and a bit more [for road access] to turn into parkland, but my grandparents turned the offer down.

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Re:EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas by klyrs on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:21PM (#24116572)
So... he bought cheap land and got mad because he didn't think the rules should apply to him. And then he was too proud to admit that he was wrong. Yeah, that sense of entitlement is a big problem with politics in America.
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