President Donald Trump's administration has unveiled a proposal to roll back methane regulations on the oil and gas industry, ahead of a subsequent initiative that could end further federal regulation of the potent greenhouse gas.
The proposal — released on Tuesday — is meant to provide "near-term relief" on oil and gas methane rules that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said were unachievable, unreasonable or lacked clarity. The administration said the existing methane rules, which were issued under former president Joe Biden, will result in 100,000-200,000 low-producing wells closing by 2030 because of the costs of coming into compliance.
"I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45bn in costs," Trump said at an event in Texas on Tuesday.
The proposal rollback, which will be open to comment through 16 December, would dismantle key parts of Biden-era regulations that were expected to cut the industry's methane emissions by nearly 80pc below baseline levels. EPA plans to eliminate a program to monitor for massive methane leaks called "super emitter" events it said was unnecessary, while ending a ban on flaring of associated gas at oil wells it said was infeasible in some locations.
Another major cut to the rules would cut methane detection at the estimated 1mn "marginal" wells in the US that produce less than 15 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) but account for roughly half of the industry's methane emissions. EPA said weakening those rules will mean only about 25,000 wells will be decommissioned in 2029, rather than nearly 200,000 wells if the rules stayed intact. Those and other changes will result in 55,000 boe/d more oil and gas production by 2030 compared to a baseline scenario, the agency expects.
EPA began dismantling the methane rules soon after Trump started his second term. The agency already cut back on mandatory flare testing and delayed some compliance deadlines by 18 months or longer. In the latest proposal, EPA said it will decide whether to eliminate the methane rules entirely once it finalizes a rule where it claims to have no authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
"EPA's proposal sets the stage for the complete deregulation of methane under the Clean Air Act even after a decade of widely supported standards and multiple congressional actions mandating that EPA regulate methane," Clean Air Task Force methane regulatory director Darin Schroeder said.
Oil and gas groups lauded EPA for its proposal to cut back on methane regulations. The regulations as initially finalized under Biden would have "threatened the continued operation of hundreds of thousands of marginal wells nationwide", Independent Petroleum Association of America chief executive Edith Naegele said.
EPA expects the rule will result in 54mn-80mn metric tonnes of additional methane emissions through 2050, which at the high end would produce the same annual greenhouse gas emissions of 24 coal-fired power plants. Another effect of the rollback will be increased ozone emissions and smog, particularly in oil-producing states such as Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, EPA found.
