WASHINGTON – The EPA announced its plan for the nation’s first ever federal methane emissions regulations on Wednesday.
As part of the Obama administration’s “commitment to addressing climate change,” the EPA outline proposes “common sense” strategies to thwart an expected 25 percent increase in methane emissions over the next decade from the United States’ growing oil and natural gas industries. The administration hopes to cut emissions by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2025, measuring from 2012 levels.
The EPA plans to propose a rule this summer, followed by a final one in 2016. The administration believes it holds the authority to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act and will not seek congressional approval. The regulations will initially only affect new oil and gas systems, but will eventually expand to existing ones.
The proposed regulations were criticized by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., They said they opposed an increase in government “red tape.”
“Our goal should be to modernize our energy infrastructure for the 21st century and continue to welcome successes in reducing emissions and delivering new sources of affordable energy to consumers who need it,” their joint statement said. “These should be the priorities that we focus on, not creating new layers of bureaucracy that could smother such promising innovation.”
The proposed EPA measures include incentives for industries to implement new pollution-reducing technologies, working with states to toughen their individual emissions regulations and demanding more accountability from industries.
Methane, a colorless and odorless greenhouse gas, is the key component in natural gas. Oil and natural gas production accounted for nearly 30 percent of all methane emissions in the United States in 2012.
The federal agency also hopes to slash emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in areas with excessive smog, or ground-level ozone, by issuing ozone health standards within each state. Smog has been shown to be the cause of many public health problems, such as worsening asthma or lung damage.
This strategy would expand on the EPA’s 2012 VOC regulations that were expected to reduce carbon pollution by 33 million tons per year. Final rules in 2016 are supposed to result in a 95 percent reduction in VOC emissions from 11,000 gas wells each year.
This is only the latest in a series of executive actions taken by the Obama administration to further its climate change agenda. The president released his Climate Action Plan in 2013, including goals to cut nearly 3 billion tons of carbon pollution by 2025.
Looking ahead, the president’s budget for 2016, beginning Oct. 1, is expected to include $15 million for the Department of Energy to develop technology to detect and reduce emissions from natural gas transmission and distribution systems.
