The Environmental Protection Agency is not expected to complete its methane regulations for existing gas facilities until the next administration, although the head of the agency says she is not ruling out the end of this year.
EPA chief Gina McCarthy discussed the regulations Tuesday during a Senate hearing on the agency’s budget.
McCarthy said the EPA is about to embark on the information collection phase of the existing rule’s development, but was uncertain about when the rule could be finalized.
“We’re moving forward with the information request hopefully very soon, which is the fundamental information we need in order to regulate effectively under the law,” the EPA chief said. The agency will most likely take until next year to issue a proposed rule, but she said the agency is “not ruling out this year.”
The administration has made eliminating methane a key priority in its final year in power as part of the president’s climate change agenda. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that many scientists blame for causing the Earth’s climate to warm, resulting in more severe weather, glacier melting and other calamities.
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, prodded McCarthy at the hearing on the need for the regulations, especially after experiencing one of the worst natural gas leaks in her state’s history.
Boxer said the leak from the gas storage facility in Aliso Canyon comprised 20 percent of the state’s total methane emissions.
She said the leak underscores the need for more stringent methane rules for all existing infrastructure that stores or facilitates the transfer of natural gas, which contains methane.
