The oil and natural gas industry thinks EPA's proposed rules on emissions from drilling and refining operations are reasonable. Repeating: Proposed rules pertaining to emissions from oil and gas activities appear to be workable, given the time to properly implement them.

That's what industry is saying as the agency collects public comment on its proposals at hearings around the country. "Some rules are worse than others, and this rule is not the end of the world as long as we can get time to implement it," Howard Feldman, API's director of regulatory and scientific affairs, told the Wall Street Journal [subscription required].

Last week Feldman and Khary Cauthen, API's director of federal relations, told reporters that industry needs additional time before the ending of the public comments period, now scheduled for the end of October. That would allow opportunity to carefully absorb EPA's proposal and provide meaningful feedback, which should be considered before the rule is finalized. "We do not oppose rules to help manage upstream emissions, but we are concerned that, unless properly crafted, they could hamper our ability to meet the nation's energy needs," Feldman said.

That's the goal: commonsense, reasonable rules developed over a reasonable timeframe.