EPA strenghtens rules on landfill methane emissions

The combined regulation promises to dramatically escalate the oil and gas industry’s existing, voluntary steps to clamp down on methane emissions, environmentalists said.

The move is part of President Barack Obama’s campaign to address climate change. He and colleagues on the conference call contend there is adequate technology available for the oil/gas sector to decrease methane emissions, but federal mandates are the only way to realize that potential.

The agency will issue three proposed rules affecting methane emissions from sources including new hydraulically fractured wells, Howard Feldman, senior director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the Washington-based institute, said by phone. That’s 13 percent more than they’re now required to capture.

For active landfills, EPA proposes to reduce the threshold from 50 metric tons of non-methane organic compounds annually to 34 metric tons. Industry and environmental groups widely expected the rules, which EPA officials said they have been working on since January.

The EPA and environmental activists argue that methane is much more unsafe than carbon dioxide, as far as climate change is concerned, and therefore must be addressed through new government regulations. Emissions attributed to the distribution stage for natural gas also declined, by 5.9%, during the same time frame – from 35.4 mmtCO2e in 2005 to 33.3 mmtCO2e in 2013.

The announcement, expected to come later on Tuesday, would propose a 40 to 45 percent cut of the methane emissions, compared to 2012 levels, from oil and gas industries by 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported. Companies can invest in more efficient compressors and seals, infrared cameras to detect leaking methane, which is invisible to the human eye, and pneumatic controllers to control valves throughout the oil and gas production system, which are all measures the EPA has been studying. It set the climate benefits from the combined proposals at almost $750 million for that year, or almost $14 for every dollar spent to comply.