Joe Biden’s government has proposed new rules for several US federal agencies with the same goal: to reduce emissions from methane, which cause global warming.
At the heart of the announcement is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that would pressure oil and gas companies to detect, monitor and repair methane leaks from wells, pipelines and other new and existing equipment.
The EPA estimates that the measure would cut 41 million tons of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035 – more than all the carbon dioxide emitted by US passenger cars and commercial aircraft in 2019.
Methane is a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term, experts told CNN that reducing methane leakage is one of the easiest ways to slow global warming.
It is the main component of natural gas, which supplies around 40% of the US electricity sector. It can enter the atmosphere through leaks from oil and natural gas wells, natural gas pipelines and the processing equipment itself. Landfills and agriculture are also sources of methane emissions.
The EPA proposal comes as Biden participates in the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, where countries are meeting to increase ambitions to decarbonize their economies.
“With this historic action, the EPA is addressing existing sources in the oil and natural gas industry across the country, as well as updating the rules for new sources, to ensure robust and lasting cuts in pollution across the country,” said the agency administrator Michael Regan in a statement.
The EPA rule under the Biden administration is more comprehensive than the measures adopted under former President Barack Obama, which covered only new and recently modified equipment.
It would also regulate natural gas that comes as a by-product of oil production, which is often released into the air or flared, and would cover leaks from compressor stations and pneumatic gas controllers, all of which can be sources of methane leaks.
If the rules are implemented, the agency says this would result in routine re-monitoring of 300,000 wells across the country.
“In all, it is estimated that about 75% of all methane emissions will be covered by this EPA rule,” a senior government official told reporters. “Methane is obviously a key issue for the US.”
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) have also announced a rule for dealing with the potent greenhouse gas.
The rule proposed by the DOI would combat emissions from wells on public land by discouraging ventilation and flaring, while the PHMSA is extending federal regulations to all onshore gas collection pipelines, requiring companies to monitor and report leaks and leak information. safety.
The US Department of Agriculture will focus on ways to capture methane from agriculture, working with farmers to identify ways to cut gas emissions in the food chain.
While 30% of the country’s methane emissions come from the oil and gas industry, it is also important to combat methane emissions from landfills and agriculture, officials emphasized.
The Biden administration has been looking for ways to meet the president’s goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 50% by 2030.
The administration tries to show strong executive action to rally support for Biden’s climate agenda in Congress, especially as some senators have not explicitly supported the economic framework that contains most of the Democrats’ climate measures.
One such measure is a fee that would be charged to oil and gas companies that emit methane above a certain threshold, along with $775 million in subsidies and incentives to help companies go below the threshold.
“The fee and the rules should be complementary tools,” Jon Goldstein of the Environmental Defense Fund told CNN.
“The rules are critical because, if designed correctly, they guarantee comprehensive reductions in all areas. The fee has the ability to increase regulations, leading to faster and potentially additional reductions.”
The government is putting emphasis on reducing methane emissions both at home and abroad, in hopes of helping to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists say the world must go down to avoid the worst impacts of methane. climate change.
Methane emissions from oil and gas “are the easiest fruit, the largest industrial source of methane emissions” in the United States, said Goldstein.
Environmental groups also say plugging spills is good for oil and gas producers’ bottom line, as so much potential product is leaking into the atmosphere.
“At the end of the day, what is leaking is a product that can be sold,” said Julie McNamara, deputy director of climate and energy policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Reference: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
