this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
131 points (97.8% liked)

politics

19134 readers
2611 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] foggy 30 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Make it $1T+ and you'll raise my eyebrows.

Fuck em.

[–] Jiggle_Physics 20 points 9 months ago

A billion to the industry as whole? Man they might have to fish in the couch cushions to come up with that kind of money.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

What matters here is that this is expensive enough that it suddenly makes financial sense to stop emitting in a lot of cases. That's a big deal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It really should be more. The fossil fuel industry in the U.S. is subsidized to the tune of $20 billion per year. I probably don't have to point it out but 1 billion is just 5% of the free money they get from the government anyway.

[–] Nurse_Robot 29 points 9 months ago (2 children)

People are complaining that this isn't enough, but no one is celebrating that we're fining them over a billion more now? A billion is a big number. I'm glad we're doing more to fight these industries than we were before

[–] PunnyName 1 points 9 months ago

I'll celebrate when it actually gets enforced.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

The fossil fuel industry in the U.S. is subsidized to the tune of $20 billion per year. I probably don't have to point it out but 1 billion is just 5% of the free money they get from the government anyway.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] newthrowaway20 1 points 9 months ago

Good, but not good enough.

[–] dohpaz42 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I’ll believe it when I see it. If there is one thing I’ve learned in the past decade is that rules and laws are only as good as their enforcement.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It kicks in this year, and there are few people out there more dogged than a tax collector who knows they're owed.

[–] dohpaz42 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Then I expect you to report back when and if these fees are levied.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

What I can say for sure is that the regulations around paying them have been issued. So I'm expecting to see them paid

[–] PunnyName 1 points 9 months ago

You sure they won't get treated like Nevalny? Pootin doesn't have a monopoly on torture.

[–] NocturnalMorning 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A billion dollars is chump change. How do we fine people the cost if doing business for something that is going to cost us the habitabiloty of the planet if we don't fix it. Am I living in crazy town or something, bcz that seems insane to me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Happy to see it

[–] evenglow 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Diversified, which has become the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the U.S., has some 70,000 such old and potentially leaky wells — making it potentially one of the biggest methane emitters in the industry as well.

According to Geofinancial, Diversified would be liable for as much as $184 million if its annual excess methane emissions are equivalent to what it released over the year ending in September 2023. While the satellite results are a snapshot in time and contain some uncertainty, the overall finding that Diversified is probably facing catastrophically steep methane fees likely holds regardless of the potential variation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If diversified goes under, I doubt it has enough in escrow to close all of those wells. Will the government allow it to use the money from the fine to close the leakiest wells as a compromise?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yea, a company like Diversified that buys old wells really gets hit hard with this, while big companies that just drill new wells (and create new problems when the wells get old) have much less methane emission and don't get penalized that much, if at all.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A drop in a barrel. Pathetic. No more than a fee to do business as usual.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's expensive enough that it's cheaper to prevent emissions in most cases. That's the idea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think throwing them in prison would be a far more effective, if you're looking for deterrents. If its good enough for drug dealers and petty criminals, why wouldn't it work for a smaller group of people who have a way more negative impact on society?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

It would surely be more effective, but we didn't have the political power to do something like that. So we got a fine.

[–] bfg9k 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I'd rather see things fixed so that they don't leak methane. That's a kind of tax avoidance I can get behind.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

$1 Billion+ Military budget increase incoming

[–] Feathercrown 1 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The thing about methane is that it only lasts a few years in the atmosphere before breaking down. This means that its impact is determined by the rate of release, unlike CO2, which accumulates, so that total cumulative emissions are what matter.

Cut the release rate for methane, and we can make a big difference, no matter when we do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Methane breaks down into co2

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

It does, but almost all of the warming it causes is the short-term warming from the time it spends as methane