EPA Change to Obama's Rule on Methane Leaks Could Lead to Increased Emissions of Greenhouse Gases

The EPA has announced another proposed amendment to the Obama era rules to combat climate change, this time on how the oil and gas industry should monitor and prevent oil spills. leaks of methane during drilling.

Andrew Wheeler, EPA's interim administrator, said the change would "alleviate unnecessary and redundant red tape" and reduce costs for the oil and gas industry.

Industrial groups claim the Obama era rule was too cumbersome and that the change will encourage oil and natural gas production in the US, but environmental groups say the Trump administration is taking a step back to prevent the effects of climate change.

This measure, announced this week, comes after the EPA proposed to cancel the other rules put in place by the Obama administration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.

Matt Watson, associate vice president of the Climate and Energy Program of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the Trump administration was "trying to burn the house" by pushing back the rules to fight the climate change.

"The weakening of these rules leads us in the wrong direction. The natural gas industry poses a problem of 13 million metric tonnes that we should be looking at to reduce these emissions more aggressively, "said Matt Watson. The Associate Vice President of the Climate and Energy Program of the Environmental Defense Fund said.

The proposal announced Tuesday would change the frequency with which natural gas companies must test leaks, when a professional engineer has to certify that the requirements have been met and that producers can apply for an exemption to try new methods of detecting leaks. leaks of methane. The EPA still considers the regulation of greenhouse gases for the oil and gas sector more broadly.

Methane is not as prevalent as carbon dioxide in terms of gases that cause warming of the atmosphere. But the methane released has the effect of warming the atmosphere more than carbon dioxide, so its regulation has been seen as a more effective way to combat climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

The previous rule required that wells and compressor stations be tested twice a year. The proposed amendment would reduce this to once a year or once every two years, depending on the type of well. The change would also eliminate the requirement to test leaks in some cases when the production equipment has been removed.

The EPA estimates that less frequent leak detection tests could result in more methane emissions. If tests are required every two years instead of twice a year, this could result in 380,000 tons of methane emissions between 2019 and 2025, equivalent to 8.5 million tons of dioxide. of carbon.

Testing once a year could result in 480,000 additional methane emissions, equivalent to 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

A report released earlier this summer revealed that the EPA could drastically underestimate the amount of methane released into the atmosphere from leaks in gas pipelines and wells, in part because it does not exist. Does not include additional emissions due to equipment malfunctions. Researchers at the Environmental Defense Fund and various universities found that emissions were up to 60% higher than EPA estimates.

Watson said research has shown that while some companies take leakage reduction seriously, you can not rely on industry leaders to solve such problems.

"You have to be on the lookout for leaks, you have to be careful about it and this rule is leading you in the wrong direction," he said.

But a professional association of oil and gas companies said the amendment proposed by the EPA corrects technical problems with the rule that will facilitate the reduction of emissions.

"Several features of the original rule were simply about paperwork and record keeping, and it was designed to be particularly onerous." Kathleen Sgamma, President of the Energy Alliance, told ABC News.

She said the change will allow producers to obtain an exemption to try new technologies to identify leaks instead of locking them into an obsolete process. Sgamma said the sector has reduced methane emissions by 14 percent over the past decade and that natural gas is one of the reasons the country has moved away from coal, which releases even more greenhouse gases. greenhouse.

"It's a balance, we can bring a much greater benefit to climate change in the electricity sector if we are not attached to the paperwork at the production site," he said. she declared.

Other research has questioned the fact that the amount of methane released by the oil and gas industry is sufficient to have an impact on the global climate. A 2017 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that methane emissions in the United States did not increase significantly from 2000 to 2013 and that they would probably not have resulted in an overall increase in methane in the atmosphere.