The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday proposed changes to the 2016 New Source Performance Standards for the oil and gas industry to limit methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

“These common-sense reforms will alleviate unnecessary and duplicative red tape and give the energy sector the regulatory certainty it needs to continue providing affordable and reliable energy to the American people,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Removing these excessive regulatory burdens will generate roughly $484 million in cost savings and support increased domestic energy production – a top priority of President Trump.”

The proposed improvements include: aligning requirements between EPA's rule and existing state programs; modifying the frequency for monitoring leaks (also known as “fugitive emissions”) at well sites and compressor stations; and making it easier for owners and operators to use emerging measurement technologies in their leaks monitoring surveys.

EPA will take comment on the proposed rule for 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register and will hold a public hearing in Denver, Colo. Details on the public hearing will be available shortly.

Click Here for more information on the proposal.  Click Here for copies of actions and notices related to federal regulation of methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

Reaction

Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel of the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, issued the following statement on the EPA announcement-- “Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s efforts to weaken critical safeguards that have been working and were finalized over two years ago is dangerous and reckless. 

“This demonstrates that the special interests of polluters are more important to him than the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians and people across the country.

“Methane leaks are an issue at every stage along the oil and gas supply chain, which means that routine, comprehensive inspections are key to detecting and repairing harmful methane emissions. 

“By arbitrarily reducing the frequency of these cost-effective leak inspections, Acting Administrator Wheeler is allowing methane leaks to go undetected and unrepaired for longer periods of time.”

The Environmental Defense Fund had these comments on EPA’s proposal.

“It’s unfortunate that the Trump Administration is once again ignoring facts and common sense only to put the interests of the nation’s worst-run oil and gas companies ahead of the health and welfare of all Americans,” said Matt Watson, Associate Vice President, Energy, Environmental Defense Fund.

The proposal would severely weaken protections that have been in effect for a year, diminishing vital safeguards that would otherwise prevent 300,000 short tons of methane pollution, 150,000 short tons of smog-forming pollutants, and 1,900 short tons of toxic pollutants per year by 2020, with further reductions by 2025.

EPA itself acknowledges that its proposal will allow additional methane emissions of at least 380,000 additional tons of methane between 2019 and 2025, and that “EPA expects that the forgone [volatile organic compound] emission reductions may also degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare…”

The Trump Administration proposal stands in stark contrast to recent actions from oil and gas companies that recognize their long-term viability depends on reducing emissions.

BP and ExxonMobil recently set methane reduction targets for their global operations; and Chevron, Equinor, and Shell joined them in committing to principles to address methane, including working with governments and NGO’s to support methane policies and regulations.

Last week, ExxonMobil asserted the position that “there should be a cost-effective federal regulatory standard to manage methane emissions for both new and existing source oil and gas facilities”

“To compete in today’s energy landscape you have to be both cheap and clean.” Watson said. “The question now is whether leading companies are going to stand up against this misguided effort or let the Trump Administration take the entire industry backward.”

The proposal comes just a few months after a comprehensive study in Science found methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry are 60 percent higher than EPA reports – 13 million metric tons a year.

This amount nearly doubles the near-term climate impact of natural gas and represents the waste of enough natural gas to serve 10 million American homes every year.

The EPA proposal is the first step in an apparent two-part strategy to eliminate regulation of oil and gas methane emissions entirely, according to EDF.

If the Administration and its backers are successful, the result will be a hobbled federal framework that would likely reduce oil and gas methane emissions by no more than about three percent by 2025 according to EDF’s initial analysis.

Analysis from the International Energy Agency indicates global oil and gas methane emissions could be reduced by up to 75 percent using technologies available today and could be reduced by 50 percent at zero net cost to companies.

The oil and gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the U.S., with methane being responsible for about a quarter of the climate warming we’re experiencing today, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Pennsylvania

In June, the Department of Environmental Protection finalized two new general permits reducing methane emissions from new oil and gas operations and expects to have draft regulations to limit methane emissions from existing sources in the first quarter of 2019.

In April, Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined Attorneys General from 14 other states to sue EPA over its decision to unreasonably delay its mandatory obligation under the federal Clean Air Act to control methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

As a result, the U.S. Court of Appeals vacated EPA’s stay of portions of the 2016 New Source Performance Standards.

With the proposed rulemaking today, EPA is proposing to significantly amend the 2016 New Source Performance Standards related to methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

NewsClips:

Maykuth: Trump Rollback Would Ease Rules On Climate-Changing Methane

Legere: As EPA Weakens Methane Rules For Gas Well Sites, PA Maintains Stricter Standards

Reuters: EPA Proposes Weaker Methane Rules For Oil & Gas Wells

EPA Admits Scrapping Oil & Gas Regs Will Put More Methane Into Atmosphere

Jessup Borough Council Question Invenergy Over Air Emissions

Editorial: Rolling Back Standards For Coal-Fired Power Plants Poisonous Regulating

Related Stories:

Wolf Announces Final General Permits Limiting Methane Emissions From New Unconventional Oil & Gas Operations

Regulatory Agenda: DEP To Propose Methane Limits On Existing Oil & Gas Operations, Conventional Drilling Regs Early In 2019

PA Attorney General Joins Other States In Suing EPA Over Controlling Methane Pollution

[Posted: Sept. 11, 2018]

9/17/2018