The combined proposals are expected to reduce methane emissions by an estimated 487,000 tons a year, beginning in 2025.
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The regulations on methane are one part of the Obama administration’s strategy to curb greenhouse gases and combat climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal will call for cutting methane emissions from oil and gas wells and pipeline and processing infrastructure.
The new proposals would strengthen a previously proposed rule for new landfills from 2014, and would update the agency’s 1996 emission guidelines for existing landfills.
“Additional regulations on methane by EPA and other agencies could have a chilling effect on the American energy renaissance, our economy, and our progress reducing emissions”, Feldman said. Rules will assure that “all in the industry do all that they can”, he said. Cutting methane is important because the gas is 25 times more powerful than Carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping pollutant.
So, assuming landfills – many of which are owned by local governments – can recoup some of their expenses, the total cost of capturing non-methane organic compounds goes down significantly – though it’s still extremely expensive. The approach also reduces methane emissions as a side benefit.
The methane proposal comes just weeks after Obama unveiled the final version of his Clean Power Plan, which aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Companies can invest in more efficient compressors and seals, infrared cameras to detect leaking methane, which is invisible to the human eye, and pneumatic controllers to control valves throughout the oil and gas production system, which are all measures the EPA has been studying.
According to the agency, municipal landfills are the third-largest source of methane, accounting for 18 percent of methane emissions in 2013 – the equivalent of approximately 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution.
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There are widely varying estimates about how much methane escapes from oil and natural gas infrastructure.
