In an effort to help boost the fortunes of the oil and gas industry, the Trump administration in August rolled back an Obama-era rule on methane emissions, spurring mixed reactions from within the industry as well as strong opposition from environmentalists.
The administration’s rule would remove the requirement for oil and gas companies to install technology to monitor and limit methane leaks from new wells, storage facilities and pipelines. Methane is one of the main components of natural gas, and it is also a potent greenhouse gas that plays a major role in global warming when released during natural gas extraction.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the move will help reduce regulatory burdens imposed on oil and gas companies, part of the administration’s goal of energy independence. “Regulatory burdens put into place by the Obama-Biden administration fell heavily on small and medium-sized energy businesses,” Wheeler said. “Today’s regulatory changes remove redundant paperwork, align with the Clean Air Act and allow companies the flexibility to satisfy leak-control requirements by complying with equivalent state rules.”
The announcement did not receive resounding applause from within the energy industry, but it was largely applauded by small oil and gas producers, who argued that the economic burden of the Obama-era regulations was not cost-effective for their business models.
“These small business wells are a very different economic entity than the big wells they designed the original program for,” Lee Fuller, executive vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, told Bloomberg News. In a statement Fuller added that independent producers are not against emissions standards and regulations, but they support regulations that are written with both small- and large-scale producers in mind.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), whose district is one of the nation’s largest producers of natural gas, also came out in support of the EPA’s move. “As someone born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania, I have seen firsthand the impact of the natural gas renaissance on our communities, including tremendous job creation and unprecedented wage growth,” Reschenthaler said in a joint statement with the EPA. “Thank you to the Trump administration for taking action and for their longstanding commitment tsupporting Pennsylvania gas and oil operators, fighting for American energy independence, and fostering economic opportunities for workers and families.”
Meanwhile, representatives from some of the larger-scale gas producers, including Shell, ExxonMobil and BP are not in favor of removing the Obama-era rule, fearing that if methane emissions are not regulated, natural gas will no longer be viewed as a cleaner alternative to coal.
“Shell has consistently urged the Trump administration to directly regulate methane emissions from existing onshore oil and gas assets,” Gretchen Watkins, the company’s president in the United States, said in a statement. “The negative impacts of leaks and fugitive emissions have been widely acknowledged for years, so it’s frustrating and disappointing to see the administration go in a different direction.”
Environmental organizations also came out in opposition to the rule. In fact, shortly after the policy was announced, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced that it will sue the Trump administration over the rollback. “The administration has no scientific or public health basis for taking this action, and EDF will forcefully oppose it in court,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement. “These rollbacks would have devastating effects on our climate and air quality, and will disproportionately damage the well-being of more than 9 million Americans who live within half a mile of wells affected by this rollback, including many Americans in our most vulnerable communities.”
On Capitol Hill, a group of House lawmakers, including 85 Democrats and two Republicans, wrote a letter to the EPA asking the agency to withdraw its rule on methane emissions. “Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change — 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release,” the members wrote. “This anti-science approach to rulemaking at the EPA is unacceptable.”
The EPA said it would respond to the lawmakers’ letter through appropriate channels. EPA Administrator Wheeler also said in September that Trump, if re-elected in November, will continue to roll back environmental regulations that are burdensome to industries.
For background, see the February 2016 issue of Congressional Digest on “Combating Climate Change.”
