For trying to slow climate change, tackling methane is a big deal — and that’s exactly why environmental groups say the Obama administration’s plan to reduce emissions of the potent heat-trapping gas doesn’t go far enough.
While the White House didn’t formally propose any regulations on the oil and gas sector Wednesday, it said any regulations the Environmental Protection Agency proposes this summer will cover only new and modified hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, wells.
That means drillers soon will have to comply with requirements that aim to control methane, which is 25 times as stronger as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But the rules wouldn’t affect thousands of existing wells, which account for 90 percent of the oil and gas industry’s methane missions.
Environmental groups said reducing “fugitive” emissions from those wells is essential to meeting the Obama administration’s goal of slashing emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Leakage rates of 3 percent, they say, could erase the climate benefits of using natural gas for electricity compared with coal.
There is little left for the Obama administration to target in its efforts to reduce emissions. Comprising nearly 10 percent of U.S. emissions, methane represents the biggest opportunity to take chunks out of the atmosphere — that is, if the administration decides to include existing wells in its regulatory effort, environmental groups said.
“The administration is proposing to fight methane pollution with one hand tied behind its back, not using the full range of powers under the Clean Air Act to cut these emissions,” said Conrad Schneider, an advocacy director with the Clean Air Task Force. Schneider said, however, that issuing rules for new sources triggers the need to craft standards for sources that already exist.
Dan Utech, President Obama’s top climate and energy adviser, acknowledged that reaching the administration’s goal of curbing oil and gas sector methane emissions 40 and 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025 isn’t possible by just addressing new wells.
“In the goal that we’re setting we are making clear that we need to get reductions from existing sources,” Utech told reporters.
Some environmental groups noted that many of the biggest methane leakers are older wells, though the industry contends it has patched many of those early models.
“Recent studies show the worst methane polluters include aging or even abandoned facilities. Global warming doesn’t care if a greenhouse gas source is new or old, and neither should these rules. Meaningful reductions in methane pollution from existing sources cannot be tackled by voluntary measures,” said Jennifer Krill, executive director with Earthworks.
Drillers had pressed the EPA to avoid directly regulating methane for the first time, but it appears the agency plans to.
Industry groups noted that advances in technology have helped reduce emissions from natural gas wells 73 percent since 2011. They have also pointed to recent studies by the Environmental Defense Fund and the University of Texas-Austin that showed leakage rates in the fracking processes that EPA wants to regulate are less than the 3 percent that worry environmentalists.
“We need our government to implement sound policies, but this plan seems to be based on politics,” American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard said. “We hope EPA will work with industry during the regulatory process to ensure that any regulations are based on science and technology and do not impair the industry’s ability to supply America with energy.”
But the White House countered that fracking is set to expand and, if left unchecked, methane emissions from the sector would rise 25 percent over the next 10 years.
The EPA said it would rely on voluntary measures and partnerships with industry, electric utilities and state regulators to achieve cuts from existing wells. If that approach isn’t effective, however, administration officials said future regulations on existing wells were possible.
Business is arguing it can achieve cuts without a regulatory stick, as trade associations said drillers have an incentive to prevent methane leaks because whatever escapes into the atmosphere can’t be sold. Electric utilities and pipeline owners urged the administration to stick to a voluntary approach, as the White House hinted it would do for that section of the natural gas distribution system, as they said that state programs aimed at accelerating replacement of leaky pipelines have been effective.
“Many of the actions INGAA already has initiated seem consistent with the direction of the administration’s proposal,” said Don Santa, president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
Republicans are likely to take aim at the coming regulations, which will include standards for components of fracking wells. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe has said he plans to conduct vigorous oversight of EPA rulemaking, and that the methane rules — which he said would hit companies in his state of Oklahoma — would be high on his list of priorities.
“The EPA has once again announced plans to impose a mandate designed to stifle our domestic energy industries despite the successful voluntary steps made by U.S. oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions,” Inhofe said.
That the administration didn’t have a cost estimate for the regulations troubled Lee Fuller, the executive vice president for the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Natural gas prices, which fell below $3 per million British thermal units this month, have tumbled to lows not seen since 2012 and threatened new production. More regulations could add to costs and thwart more drilling, he said.
“The fact that there is no price tag associated with the administration’s proposal is cause for serious concerns, at a time where America’s oil and natural gas production industry is experiencing significant uncertainty,” Fuller said.
