this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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politics

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top 31 comments
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[–] 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