The U.S. announced a broad expansion and strengthening of rules to limit methane emissions from oil and natural gas Tuesday as President Biden seeks to assert U.S. leadership on global warming at the climate summit in Glasgow.
Under the proposed rules, the Environmental Protection Agency will for the first time seek to regulate methane at existing wells nationwide, a move smaller producers have fought for years. It would put roughly one million new and existing wells under EPA methane regulation, with more stringent requirements for new wells in addition to the first-time regulations for old ones.
The rules would require what the EPA calls “a comprehensive monitoring program to require companies to find and fix leaks” applying across operations, including wells, pipes and storage tanks. It includes provisions to encourage the use of new technology such as drones for more effective monitoring.
It would prohibit venting off gas at oil wells, which producers sometimes do when oil is much more valuable than gas. The agency would require producers to put that gas in a pipeline to be sold when possible to keep natural gas from being wasted. In 2030 alone, that would save $690 million worth of gas that might otherwise be wasted, the EPA said.
The combined measures would reduce methane emissions from oil wells, storage tanks and other facilities covered by the regulations by an estimated 74% by 2030 compared with emissions from those sources in 2005, the EPA said.
The announcement comes during the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, where Mr. Biden is seeking to show the U.S. is taking significant steps to limit global warming, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
Mr. Biden spoke briefly at an event marking the signing of a global methane reduction pledge signed by more than 80 countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and actor Leonardo DiCaprio were among those in attendance.
“One of the most important things we can do in this decisive decade is to keep 1.5 degrees in reach, is to reduce our methane emissions as quickly as possible,” Mr. Biden said. “So together we’re committing to collectively reduce our methane by 30% by 2030.”
In a phone interview, EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the U.S. methane reduction plan “a very bold and aggressive step towards tackling climate pollution.”
“The timing is critical here,” he said. “World leaders are gathering in Glasgow and they’re looking to the United States for leadership.”
The EPA said it aims to finalize the regulations next year, following a 60-day public comment period and a review by other agencies that could lead to changes in the proposal.
The EPA proposal is one of several measures the administration is rolling out Tuesday.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will announce its own plans for rules limiting emissions from millions of miles of pipes in urban gas-distribution systems and transmission lines crisscrossing the country, according to senior administration officials. Other plans will push for new limits on emissions from landfills and farms.
The rules for the oil-and-gas sector would fulfill a campaign promise from Mr. Biden to lessen the oil-and-gas industry’s contribution to climate change. The EPA issued the first-ever federal standards on the industry’s methane emissions in 2016, but limited them to new oil-and-gas facilities.
The rules have been a flashpoint within the industry, often pitting the world’s giant oil companies against smaller domestic rivals.
Big oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC have said they support federal regulation in recent years. They have faced heavy pressure from investors concerned about climate change and often have more capital to help comply with regulations than their smaller rivals do.
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil-and-gas industry’s dominant trade group, said Tuesday that it supports regulations for existing sources—a new stance it took earlier this year—and that it is still reviewing the EPA’s proposed rules.
“We will continue working with the agency to help shape a final rule that is effective, feasible and designed to encourage further innovation,” said Frank Macchiarola, the group’s senior vice president for policy, economics and regulatory affairs.
A smaller industry trade group, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, has raised objections, saying rules that effectively require cutting-edge technology like an optical leak detection system would be too costly and complicated for low-production oil-and-gas wells.
In comments to EPA earlier this year, it said that requirements for expensive detection equipment could cause many smaller, low-producing wells to close production sooner than they would otherwise, in a financial hit to their owners.
Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council support the tougher measures, saying in a recent letter to Mr. Regan that “stopping methane leaks from the oil-and-gas sector is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to reduce pollution and slow warming.”
Mr. Regan said technology is advancing so quickly even some of those smaller companies are likely to find they can follow the rules without financial harm. He also cited extreme weather and disasters from climate change in saying the agency should move forward with the rules because of the costs climate change puts on the rest of society.
“What’s more important is the cost of inaction is far more severe and pressing,” he said. “We believe that when you look at cost, you have to look at costs across the board.”
Methane, clear and odorless, is the main component of natural gas and accounts for about a tenth of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the EPA. Carbon dioxide is more prevalent, but methane is 85 times more effective at trapping heat while it lingers in the atmosphere, according to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It often gets there undetected through leaks and other malfunctions, unlike carbon, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels.
Naturally, methane comes from decomposing matter such as swamps with rotting vegetation. But most of it comes from man-made sources, including landfills and livestock raising, according to a U.S. government estimate.
About 30% of U.S. methane emissions come from the oil-and-gas industry, according to a White House estimate.
The proposed EPA regulations don’t affect methane emissions from agricultural livestock, such as dairy cattle and pigs, which contribute an estimated one-third of all methane emissions.
Senior administration officials said the Agriculture Department will be looking to address that problem through other means, such as creating incentives for farmers to capture emissions.
The 2016 rules for the oil-and-gas industry, adopted in President Barack Obama’s last year as president, required companies to install technologies that monitor and limit inadvertent emission of methane during the production and transmission process of natural gas and require new practices, such as regular inspections for leaks.
Some of the standards’ requirements were briefly paused under Mr. Trump, but were later reversed by Congress.
While Mr. Biden has promised sweeping action to address climate change, Tuesday’s proposal is one of the most significant yet the administration has taken. Mr. Biden’s initial move on cars and trucks relies heavily on voluntary commitments from auto makers.
Mr. Biden has also proposed spending $555 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but that plan is still awaiting congressional approval. A key element—a $150 billion program aimed at pushing utilities to draw more power from clean-energy sources—was cut under pressure from Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.)
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text