“We’ve got a failed experiment that is now being used as a model for the rest of the nation”, said Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance, a Denver-based petroleum industry advocacy group.
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But on the same day, the agency also quietly issued what it calls “proposed clarification of air permitting rules” – strict new policies that, if adopted, will likely make energy production more expensive where it’s not impossible. “This rule is simply not the best way to achieve our shared goal of methane emissions reductions”.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich last week announced plans to join with 15 other states in an attempt to overturn the finalized rule.
The EPA’s new methane regulations are part of President Obama’s climate change agenda and come just weeks after his administration unveiled its final draft of the Clean Power Plan which cuts carbon emissions from coal fired power plants (read Inside Energy’s analysis here). And because methane can be sold at the end of the pipeline in the form of natural gas, many of these measures quickly pay for themselves. While the proposed rule would only apply to facilities constructed, modified, or reconstructed after the date of publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register, EPA suggests voluntary guidelines for existing sources, and additional controls may be forthcoming.
The EPA on Tuesday set out a range of proposed methane emissions standards which could mandate businesses to find and fix methane leaks, capture natural gas from fracking wells, and limit emissions from drilling and transmission equipment.
HOWARD FELDMAN: And that will only raise the cost of producing oil and gas, the cost that industry faces, and that will affect America’s competitiveness in the global economy. This week, the agency took another step forward by starting the process of addressing the second-largest industrial source of climate pollution: rampant methane pollution from the oil and gas industry. The majority of the industry’s methane pollution results from leaks that can be identified – and from intentional venting that can be reduced – with the help of existing, low-cost technologies and better, more efficient maintenance practices.
Environmental Science and Technology: Methane Emissions from United States Natural Gas Gathering and Processing – “Since 2005, domestic production of natural gas (NG) in the United States has increased by 26%”.
But methane, the principal constituent of natural gas, itself is among the most potent of greenhouse gases. This unnecessary power grab is further evidence that the president is more concerned with appeasing extremist environmental groups than with protecting the interests of the American people…
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Drillers who were already controlling emissions deliberately accepted Colorado’s rules with much little opposition. “EPA’s proposed standards cover methane emissions from new and modified sources, but EPA should address existing sources as well”.
