The Interior Department on Monday proposed rules to limit methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on public lands, the latest move by the Biden administration to clamp down on emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane. which contributes significantly to global warming.
The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management proposal would tighten limits on gas flaring on federal lands and force energy companies to better detect methane leaks that add to global warming greenhouse gas pollution .
The actions follow a more comprehensive methane reduction plan announced by President Joe Biden earlier this month. The Nov. 11 proposal, announced while Biden was attending a global climate conference in Egypt, targets the oil and gas industry for its role in global warming, even as the president has pressed energy producers for more. oil drilling to lower prices at the gas pump.
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Oil and gas production is the nation’s largest industrial source of methane, the main component of natural gas, and is a key target for the Biden administration as it seeks to tackle climate change.
The proposal announced Monday would prevent billions of cubic feet of natural gas from being wasted through venting, flaring and leaks, increasing efficiency while reducing pollution, administration officials said.
“This proposed rule will bring our regulations in line with the technological advancements the industry has made in the decades since the BLM rules were put in place, while providing a fair return to taxpayers,” the secretary said. ‘Inside Deb Haaland in a statement.
Venting and flaring activity from oil and gas production on public lands has increased significantly over the past few decades. Between 2010 and 2020, total volumes of natural gas lost to venting and flaring on federal and tribal lands averaged about 44.2 billion cubic feet per year – enough to serve about 675,000 homes, Interior said. The figure represents a sharp increase from an annual average of 11 billion cubic feet lost to venting and flaring in the 1990s.
A flare to burn off excess methane from crude oil production is seen on a well pad in North Dakota on May 18, 2021.
(AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
“Nobody likes to waste the natural resources of our public lands,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. She called the draft rule a sensible and environmentally friendly solution to the damage caused by wasted natural gas. The rule “puts the U.S. taxpayer first and ensures producers pay appropriate royalties” for natural gas flaring, she said.
The Interior previously announced a rule to limit methane emissions under former President Barack Obama. The plan was challenged in court and later weakened under former President Donald Trump. Competing court rulings blocked enforcement of the Trump and Obama-era rules, leading the agency to revert to rules crafted more than 40 years ago.
Jon Goldstein, an oil and gas expert at the Environmental Defense Fund, said new standards are needed to “end the waste of taxpayer-owned energy resources that has become far too common on federal lands and tribes across the United States”.
He called BLM’s proposal an “important first step, consistent with its longstanding authority to minimize waste.”
The rule would impose monthly limits on flaring and charge fees for flaring that exceeds those limits.
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Some conservation groups have criticized the rule, saying it does not do enough to eliminate gas flaring. “BLM needs to go further to implement strong measures to reduce methane waste and avoid creating what amounts to little more than a pay-for-pollute system,” said Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center.
“The climate crisis requires immediate and strong action to reduce emissions, especially when there are technologies available today to minimize methane emissions at the sink level,” she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency rule announced in Egypt targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells across the country, including smaller drilling sites which will now be required to find and seal leaks of methane.
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The rule comes as Biden has accused oil companies of “war profiteering” and raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on energy companies if they fail to increase domestic production.
In addition to the EPA rule, a sweeping climate and health law approved by Congress in August would impose a charge on power producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions. The charge, which is expected to rise to $1,500 per metric ton of methane, marks the first time the federal government has directly imposed a charge, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions.
The law includes $1.5 billion in grants and other spending to improve monitoring and data collection of methane emissions, with the goal of finding and fixing natural gas leaks.
The BLM will accept comments on the proposed rule until early February, with a final rule expected next year.
