The US Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to assist in getting more than $1bn in funding out the door to the oil and gas companies that are seeking to cut their methane emissions.
The funding, provided under the Inflation Reduction Act, has yet to become available to oil and gas companies nearly 11 months after the law's enactment, prompting complaints from some lawmakers. But the DOE late last week said it was partnering with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help with the distribution of $1bn in funding.
While the EPA develops the regulations for the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP), which seeks to quickly cut emissions of the potent greenhouse gas from oil and gas sites by developing fines, the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will help on the "financial and technical assistance aspects of the program," the agency said.
The partnership "will build upon and complement DOE's existing efforts to monitor and mitigate methane emissions across the nation's oil and natural gas producing regions," said US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm.
A number of lawmakers have complained about the EPA's delay in distributing $1.5bn for MERP funded under the Inflation Reduction Act. Those funds are meant to kick-start industry efforts to reduce methane emissions before a "waste emissions charge" starts in 2024 at $900/metric tonne (t) for oil and gas facilities that continue to have excess amounts of methane leaks.
By Jose Munoz and Chris Knight
