White House plans methane-gas curbs
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is putting the energy industry on notice that it intends to curb methane emissions by nearly half through regulations affecting oil and gas production.
That’s according to two people familiar with the administration’s plan, who requested anonymity because the plan hasn’t been announced.
The plan aims to cut emissions up to 45 percent by 2025, compared with 2012 levels. Reductions are to come from a mix of voluntary steps by industry and regulations from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department.
The energy industry says the regulations are unnecessary and burdensome. Environmentalists say they’re crucial to slowing global warming.
Bartender charged in threat on Boehner
WASHINGTON – An Ohio bartender with a history of psychiatric illness was indicted last week on a charge of threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink, according to records made available Tuesday.
A grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7 identified the accused man as Michael R. Hoyt, a resident of Cincinnati.
A separate criminal complaint said Hoyt was fired last fall from his job at a country club in West Chester, Ohio, where he served drinks to Boehner, who is a member.
In a subsequent conversation with a police officer, Hoyt said that before leaving, he “did not have time to put something in John Boehner’s drink,” according to the complaint.
The court paper also said, “Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and that he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola.”
Appeals court won’t hear same-sex case
LAS VEGAS – A federal appeals court in San Francisco won’t re-hear a decision by a three-judge panel allowing same-sex marriages in Nevada.
Attorney Peter Renn of the gay rights advocacy group Lambda Legal welcomed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order.
It was issued Friday and affected Nevada and Idaho.
Renn said Tuesday that it puts marriage equality for same-sex couples one step closer to certain.
Attorney Monte Stewart, for the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, declined comment. The coalition had sought a full-court rehearing of a ruling last October by three 9th Circuit judges allowing same-sex marriages in the two states.
The coalition hasn’t said whether it’ll ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
Associated Press
