Biden Administration Moves to Limit Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas

GLASGOW – The Biden government planned to announce Tuesday that it will heavily regulate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas leaked from oil and natural gas operations that can warm the atmosphere 80 times as fast as carbon dioxide in the short term.

For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency intends to limit methane from around one million existing oil and gas rigs in the United States. The federal government previously had rules aimed at preventing methane leaks from oil and gas wells built since 2015, but they have been repealed by the Trump administration. Mr Biden intends to restore and strengthen them, administrative staff said.

Mr Biden is in Glasgow this week for a United Nations climate change summit trying to convince other countries to cut emissions from fossil fuels, which are heating the planet to dangerous levels.

The methane announcement comes as Mr Biden is under heavy pressure, both internationally and at home, to show that the United States, the nation that has pumped the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, is serious about mitigating climate change .

Mr Biden has set an aggressive goal of cutting emissions produced by the United States in this decade by about 50 percent below 2005 levels, but laws to help him achieve that goal have stalled in Congress. That leaves the administration to rely on regulations and other measures of the executive branch.

The White House will also release other new climate initiatives on Tuesday, including a plan to protect tropical forests and a push to accelerate clean technologies, senior administrators told journalists on Monday.

The heart of the matter, however, will be the proposed Methane Ordinance. Speaking to leaders in Glasgow on Monday, Biden said 70 countries had joined a coalition led by the United States and the European Union to reduce global methane levels by at least 30 percent by 2030.

“I encourage every nation to sign up,” said Biden, calling this the “single most effective strategy we have to slow global warming in the near future”.

Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and is responsible for more than a quarter of the global warming. It dissolves from the atmosphere faster than carbon dioxide, but briefly heats the atmosphere more strongly.

Methane is an odorless, colorless, flammable gas and is produced by landfills, agriculture, ranching, and oil and gas drilling. It is sometimes intentionally burned or released into the atmosphere during gas production.

As concentrations of methane in the atmosphere have increased, environmentalists have become increasingly concerned about its role in climate change.

According to the EPA, once finalized, the regulation will reduce 41 million tonnes of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035, which equates to 920 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by all U.S. cars and airliners in 2019, the agency said.

“With this historic move, the EPA is addressing existing wells from the oil and natural gas industry nationwide and is also updating the rules for new wells to ensure robust and lasting pollution reductions across the country,” the agency’s administrator, Michael S Regan said in a statement.

But Republicans in Congress said Mr Biden’s promises in Glasgow would harm Americans at home. “The president wants to kill the plentiful and affordable US energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal that Americans depend on,” said Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, in a statement. He called the White House plans “a recipe for disaster” that would lead to a lack of affordable energy.

The oil and gas industry is divided over the methane plan.

Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, which represents some of the country’s largest producers, said her group supported new federal regulations, though she noted she hadn’t seen the details.

Ms. Harbert noted that methane emissions from natural gas have decreased by 73 percent since 1990. But, she said, “we realize we need to button up and hit that last percentage.” She called regulation “the best possible approach” to create industry-wide uniform rules.

Small oil and gas producers, however, fear that the new rules will create burdensome pressures that will put them out of business.

The implementation of the proposed regulations could take time, likely face legal challenges, and be reversed by a future government, observers say.

“When a president tries to use unilateral executive powers, there are an immediate number of hurdles,” said Barry Rabe, professor of environmental policy at the University of Michigan. “The transition will not be easy.”

In addition to reducing greenhouse gases, regulating methane will protect public health, EPA officials said.

When methane is released into the atmosphere, it is often accompanied by dangerous chemicals such as benzene and hydrogen sulfide. Exposure to these pollutants has been linked to serious health problems such as asthma and cancer.

Sue Franklin knows the effects firsthand. She and her husband Jim lived in the west Texas town of Verhalen, where oil and gas drilling began around 2014.

Gases leaked from two new wells causing the couple headaches, nosebleeds and asthma attacks.

The Franklins eventually moved about 40 miles away, but Ms. Franklin, 70, said she feared she would have breathing problems for the rest of her life.

“It will never get better; the damage is done, ”Ms. Franklin said as she and her husband traveled to Washington, DC to protest new fossil fuel projects. Ms. Franklin said she believed new regulations on oil and gas wells would help, but only up to a point.

“We were the lucky ones,” she says. “We got out. Others still live with it. I would like to see them actually closed. “

The oil and gas industry agrees against a separate effort in Congress to charge a fee for methane leaks from oil and gas wells as part of a broader budget.

The methane charge is intended to both increase revenue and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Experts said the two-pronged approach was necessary to stop methane emissions.

The fee would apply to the largest oil and gas companies, which emit more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year. These companies would pay $ 900 per tonne of methane leaked from 2024 and increase to $ 1,500 per tonne from 2026 to 2030.

Oil and gas producers are working hard to get the methane charge off legislation pending on Capitol Hill.

Anne Bradbury, chief executive of the American Exploration and Production Council, which represents oil and gas companies, said, “This new, ill-engineered natural gas tax would be on top of the regulatory costs imposed by compliance with the upcoming EPA methane regulations.” Costs and penalty taxes that would penalize American producers, increase Americans’ energy bills, and lose 90,000 jobs across the country. “

Methane regulations have a fragile history in Washington.

President Barack Obama first proposed rules to reduce methane from new and modified gas sources in 2016 and finalized them on his way out of office. Republicans tried to kill them in 2017 but failed by implementing an obscure law known as the Congressional Review Act that allows lawmakers to repeal rules within 60 legislature days of their completion.

The Home Office and EPA lifted Mr Obama’s methane regulations when President Donald J. Trump stepped down.

In April, the Democrats attempted to introduce the Congressional Review Act and succeeded in voting to kill Mr Trump’s rollback.

According to the EPA, the proposed rule will create a monitoring program that requires companies to find and fix methane leaks, often referred to as “fugitive emissions”, from new and existing wells and compressor stations.

Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the technology to reduce methane emissions exists. Operators can install vapor recovery systems in storage tanks, ensure pressure relief valves are not left open, and replace leaky pipes.

“This is not about rocket science,” Brownstein said. “This is auto mechanics.”

Coral Davenport contributed to the coverage.