But the oil and gas industry is pushing back on the new rules, calling them “unreasonable” in a statement from the American Petroleum Institute.
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The oil and gas industry is the leading source of methane, an intense but short-lived greenhouse gas shown to warm the atmosphere 84 times more than carbon dioxide when measured over two decades. Earlier guidelines, issued in 2015, would have cost the industry between $320 million and $420 million by 2025, with associated savings of up to $550 million.
New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn isn’t a fan of the Obama administration’s plan to clamp down on oil companies that burn off natural gas on public land. A worldwide glut has driven oil and gas prices down. “Many of these measures will pay for themselves in a few years”.
It is the second most common greenhouse gas emitted in the United States as a result of human activities, with almost one-third of its emissions coming from oil production and the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas, the EPA said.
And while this would not apply to the vast numbers of existing rigs, well pads and auxiliary equipment that have driven a historic boom in domestic production of oil and gas, the agency signaled that it plans to regulate those as well.
Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.
The first step is to gather information, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said.
Congressional Republicans and oil and gas industry representatives were quick to denounce the regulations, which they said are unnecessary in light of voluntary efforts on the part of the industry to reduce pollution.
The White House admitted the administration had at first underestimated the scale of methane emissions from the thousands of new wells put into production during the fracking boom – which transformed the U.S. into an energy superpower.
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, called methane a tremendous climate threat. “Cutting this pollution is the fastest, cheapest path to slow the warming we will otherwise see in the next 20 years”.
The Obama administration, yielding to environmentalists demanding action to address climate change, issued limits on methane emissions from oil and gas wells that are even tougher than those it proposed previous year.
But oil industry leaders warned that aggressive new rules – especially coming on top of additional proposed mandates for wells on federal land – could shut in some marginal wells and wipe out small, independent producers. The new gas production has caused America to transition to clean burning natural gas-fired power plants, which emit far less Carbon dioxide than conventional coal power, leading to a 12 percent decline in greenhouse gas emissions since 2005.
Obama has committed to cutting United States methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.
Oil and gas producers say the rules are unnecessary because the industry already has reduced emissions by nearly 79 percent since 2005.
“Even as oil and natural gas production has risen dramatically” in recent years, “methane emissions have fallen, thanks to industry leadership and investment in new technologies”, said Kyle Isakower, API vice president of regulatory and economic policy.
The EPA expanded the final regulation in response to concerns from environmentalists, who said the draft proposed don’t go far enough.
However, McCarthy indicated it was now unlikely the administration would have time to put in place rules on almost 1m existing oil and gas wells and other facilities before Obama leaves office.
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The rules will only apply to new oil and gas wells, but the EPA is now working on another set of regulations for existing wells. A fourth proposal put out by EPA last August-control guidelines for oil and gas contributors to smog in areas that fail to meet the national air quality standards for ozone, that would reach existing sources of ozone pollution-is expected soon.
