The Trump administration announced a plan Tuesday to roll back a major Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that restricts emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The EPA said its rollback of former President Obama’s 2015 methane regulation for oil and natural gas drillers would give the industry $484 million over six years, while reducing unnecessary and duplicative burdens. ADVERTISEMENT The plan is the latest blow to Obama’s aggressive climate change policies, and at least the third major step the EPA has made this year to change the way air pollutants are regulated. “These common-sense reforms will alleviate unnecessary and duplicative red tape and give the energy sector the regulatory certainty it needs to continue providing affordable and reliable energy to the American people,” acting EPA head Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “Removing these excessive regulatory burdens will generate roughly $484 million in cost savings and support increased domestic energy production — a top priority of President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE,” he said. Methane is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide for global warming, and the rollback would increase emissions by about 380,000 short tons by 2025. It would also increase public exposure to ozone pollution and hazardous air pollutants, the agency said. Specifics in Tuesday’s proposal aim to streamline the process for oil and gas well regulations and monitoring. The rule would reduce the frequency of monitoring methane emissions from gas and oil wells from annually to every two years, and compressor stations that are used to help transport natural gas would be monitored just once a year. It would lessen the qualifications for engineers who must certify the emissions-capturing equipment used, open the door to more “alternative” technologies to limit pollution, reduce emissions reporting requirements and exempt many natural gas processing plants from monitoring. The provisions that weren’t rolled back in Tuesday’s plan could be changed in a future proposal, the agency said. Trump has promised the change to methane regulations since his 2016 campaign, and the oil and gas industry has made an all-out push to make it a reality. The two largest contributors of methane are leaks from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock. The American Petroleum Institute called the rule change a welcomed effort Tuesday, noting that the industry itself has already taken its own strides to cap air pollution. "Significantly, methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry are already down 14 percent since 1990 while production has increased by 50 percent. Clean natural gas produced through advanced technologies like hydraulic fracturing has helped reduce carbon emissions to 25-year lows," the group said in a statement. "U.S. air quality continues to improve as the natural gas and oil industry remains committed to reaching our shared goals of protecting public health and the environment while meeting the nation’s energy needs. " Some experts anticipate that the new rule would allow for far more air pollution and leaks of the gas stemming from practices known as flaring or fuel burning. That in turn would allow for a dangerous increase in emissions, environmentalists say. “With this methane safeguard rollback, President Trump’s EPA just sacrificed public health and climate for oil and gas industry profits. And he did so despite some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies endorsing the need for methane rules” Lauren Pagel, policy director at Earthworks, said in a statement. The EPA first implemented the restrictions in 2016 as part of a crackdown on methane. It was part of Obama’s larger push to mitigate the effects of climate change though implementing a slew of rules including regulations on greenhouse emissions from coal fired plants, tailpipe emissions in cars and other sources. Democrats reacted negatively to the proposal Tuesday, calling it another of the administration's attacks on environmental protection. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. Frank Joseph PalloneIntercept bureau chief: Democrats dropping support of Medicare for All could threaten bill's momentum House Democrats reintroduce road map to carbon neutrality by 2050 House Democrats criticize Texas's 'shortcomings in preparations' on winter storms MORE (D-N.J.), ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the rule "unconscionable." "EPA’s move to weaken commonsense and cost-effective requirements for oil and gas operations to find and repair leaks in a timely manner undermines critical public health protections from harmful pollutants like methane, benzene and volatile organic compounds," Pallone said in a statement. "With this reckless proposed loophole, the Trump Administration is siding with the worst actors in the oil and gas industry and is putting polluter profits ahead of the lives of Americans,” he said. The Trump administration earlier this year released proposals that would weaken both the Clean Power Plan and vehicle emissions standards. In July, EPA signed off on another rule exempting farmers from reporting methane emissions from livestock. The rule came from just passed legislation that exempted farmers from having to report emissions derived from animal waste and other pollutants. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management announced in February that it, too, would be looking to roll back a regulation from Obama that sought to limit the amount of methane allowed to be emitted into the air through drilling. While Obama’s EPA rule applied nationally, the Interior standards were targeted to drillers on federal land, with an eye toward reducing waste of a resource owned by taxpayers. Updated at 1:15 p.m.<doc-sep>The Environmental Protection Agency has announced another proposed change to Obama-era rules intended to combat climate change, this time to how the oil and natural gas industry is required to monitor and prevent leaks of methane gas during drilling. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the change will "alleviate unnecessary and duplicative red tape" and reduce costs for the oil and gas industry. Industry groups say the Obama-era rule was too cumbersome and that the change will promote oil and natural gas production in the U.S., but environmental groups say the move shows the Trump administration is taking another step back from preventing the effects of climate change. The move, announced this week, comes after EPA has proposed rolling back other rules put in place by the Obama administration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stem global warming, including a proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan and reduced requirements for fuel efficiency standards. Matt Watson, associate vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund's climate and energy program, said the Trump administration is "trying to burn down the house" by rolling back rules intended to combat climate change. "Weakening these rules is taking us in exactly the wrong direction. You have a 13 million metric ton methane problem from the natural gas industry we should be figuring out how to reduce these emissions more aggressively not going in the other direction," Matt Watson, associate vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund's climate and energy program said. The proposal announced Tuesday would change how frequently natural gas companies have to test for leaks, when a professional engineer has to certify when requirements have been met, and when producers can request an exemption to try new methods of detecting methane leaks. EPA is still considering greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas sector more broadly. Methane is not as prevalent as carbon dioxide in terms of gases that cause the atmosphere to heat up. But methane that's released causes the atmosphere to warm up more than carbon dioxide, so regulating it was seen as a more effective way to combat climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The previous rule required that wells and compressor stations be tested for leaks twice a year. The proposed change would reduce that to either once a year or once every other year, depending on the type of well. The change would also eliminate the requirement to test for leaks in some cases when production equipment has been removed. EPA estimates that testing for leaks less frequently could result in more emissions of methane. If testing is required every other year instead of twice a year it could result in 380,000 tons of methane emissions between 2019 and 2025, the equivalent of 8.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Testing once a year could result in an additional 480,000 of methane emissions, the equivalent of 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. A report published earlier this summer found that EPA could be drastically underestimating the amount of methane released into the atmosphere from leaks in natural gas pipelines and wells, in part because it doesn't include extra emissions from equipment malfunctions. The researchers from the Environmental Defense Fund and various universities found that emissions were up to 60 percent higher than the EPA's estimate. Watson said the research showed that even though some companies take reducing leaks seriously you can't rely on industry leaders to solve these kinds of problems. "You've gotta be out there looking for leaks. You've gotta be vigilant about that and this rule takes us in absolutely the wrong direction," he said. But a trade association for oil and gas companies said EPA's proposed change fixes technical issues with the rule that will make it easier for them to reduce emissions. "Several features of the original rule were just about more red tape and recordkeeping and it was done in such a way to be particularly onerous and it felt to us that it was more about tying up industry in red tape than an environmental benefit," Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma told ABC News. She said the change will allow producers to get an exemption to try new technology for identifying leaks instead of locking them into an outdated process. Sgamma said the industry has reduced methane emissions 14 percent over the last decade and that natural gas is part of the reason the country has moved away from coal, which releases even more greenhouse gases. "It's a balance, we can deliver that much bigger climate change benefit in the electricity sector if we're not tied up in red tape at the production site," she said. Other research has questioned whether the amount of methane released by the oil and natural gas industry is enough to impact the global climate. A 2017 study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that methane emissions in the U.S. had not significantly increased from 2000 to 2013 and that it was not likely to have driven overall increases of methane in the atmosphere.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is seeking to ease Obama-era restrictions on methane gas emissions, touting the benefits for energy companies while admitting the changes could harm air quality and human health. Under a new proposal that the Environmental Protection Agency released on Tuesday, oil and gas companies would be permitted to conduct less frequent inspections for methane leaks at their facilities and would be given more time to make repairs. The agency estimated that its proposal, which was first reported by The New York Times, would save up to $484 million in regulatory costs between 2019 and 2025, at the expense of at least $54 million in domestic societal costs due to methane's impact on climate, including higher flood risk and air-conditioning costs. The EPA called the Obama-era climate rules "overly burdensome and duplicative." But in its own analysis, the EPA said it expected the proposed changes "may also degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare effects associated with exposure" to ozone, particulate matter and other pollutants that would rise in addition to methane gas. The agency said that it did not quantify the harm or include them in its cost analysis because of a lack of relevant data. However, the EPA's analysis said that instances of premature death, stroke, chronic bronchitis and low birth weight could rise due to higher emissions of harmful pollutants. The agency also recently estimated that its proposed changes to Obama-era rules for coal plants would cause up to 1,400 more deaths per year. "The EPA is acknowledging that rolling back these pollution protections will have an impact on our children's health, on the health of our communities, and they're going ahead with it anyway," said Matthew Gravatt, associate legislative director of the Sierra Club. "They're responding to the request of the dirty fuel industry." The EPA did not respond to a request for comment. Environmentalists also decried the administration for undermining the battle against climate change, pointing out that methane traps significantly more heat than carbon dioxide, and said the agency was hiding the true cost of global warming by only considering the impact of higher emissions on the U.S., instead of globally. "Methane is a very dangerous climate pollutant — its effects are severe," said Howard Crystal, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, criticizing the EPA for rolling back "easily achievable corrections." "Methane gas is a super-pollutant for climate change and today's EPA action is wasteful and outrageous," Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, said in a statement. "This short-sighted proposal is yet another example of the Trump EPA ignoring its responsibility to protect American families." Oil and gas companies lauded the Trump administration for its proposal, saying they would help the industry while protecting public health. "We welcome EPA's efforts to get this right and the proposed changes could ensure that the rule is based on best engineering practices and cost-effective," Howard Feldman of the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement.<doc-sep>The Trump administration has been working to rollback rules instated by the Obama administration that would limit how much methane gas could be vented to the atmosphere at oil- and gas-drilling and processing operations. In a press release today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is proposing to relax Obama-era rules, saving the industry $484 million in avoided energy costs. But the EPA is expected to justify its rules with analysis. That analysis (PDF) suggests that this regulatory rollback will also come with costs in the form of 308,000 short tons of methane emitted between 2019 and 2025. For context, the Aliso Canyon gas leak three years ago represented the largest accidental release of methane in US history, and over the four months that workers struggled to plug that well, 107,000 short tons of methane are estimated to have been released. That is a serious amount of methane with serious climate consequences in the short-run. Methane is many times more potent than CO 2 as a greenhouse gas, though it decomposes in the atmosphere more quickly. Carbon dioxide sticks around in the atmosphere for a longer time, but each individual molecule of CO 2 has less of a warming effect than a molecule of methane. The EPA's own analysis also says than an additional 100,000 short tons of volatile organic compounds and 3,800 short tons of hazardous air pollutants would also be emitted, compared to keeping the existing rules in place. Advertisement Latch-key emissions Under the Obama-era rules, oil- and gas-drilling companies and processors face requirements to monitor their methane emissions quarterly, searching for leaks that could be quietly releasing pollutants into the air. Under the newly proposed rule, the EPA only wants oil and gas companies to search for leaks semi-annually or annually. A recent study suggested that methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure are dramatically underestimated, nearly (but not quite) to the point where burning natural gas is as harmful to the environment from a climate perspective as burning coal. The EPA's current proposed action would (PDF) not only reduce the frequency with which the oil and gas industry would have to monitor for methane leaks, it would also relax requirements for companies to have a professional engineer certify that methane emissions regulations had been met. In addition, the EPA's fact sheet suggests that the agency is considering extending the time a company has to complete an initial emissions survey after a well is placed. Currently, the rules require that a well operator has 60 days to monitor for emissions. No precise extended time period has been suggested. The EPA also suggested giving the oil and gas industry extra time to repair any gas leaks that are found. The Trump administration has faced several legal challenges on the matter of these methane rules. The EPA under former Administrator Scott Pruitt tried to simply not enforce the Obama-era rules while it prepared the analysis for a more efficient regulatory rollback, but the agency was ordered to enforce those rules by the US Court of Appeals in 2017. The EPA will hold a public hearing on the proposed rules in Denver, Colorado, at a date that's still to be determined.<doc-sep>
The Trump administration moved closer on Tuesday to rolling back Obama-era rules reducing oil and gas industry leaks of methane gas. Methane is one of the most potent agents of climate change. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally released its proposed substitute for a 2016 Obama administration rule that aimed to step up detection and elimination of methane leaks at well sites and other oil and gas facilities, it conceded the move “may … degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare”. The move is part of a broad Trump administration effort to undo former president Barack Obama’s legacy programs to fight climate change by cutting emissions from oil, gas and coal. The EPA conceded that relaxing the Obama-era rule for methane leaks at oil and gas sites would put another 380,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere by 2025. The amount is roughly equivalent to more than 30m tons of carbon dioxide, another fossil-fuel emission that receives far more attention in efforts to slow climate change. Relaxing federal oversight will save $75m in regulatory costs annually, the agency said. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, a Colorado-based group that represents more than 300 companies, said the proposed changes would make the EPA rule more efficient and workable. The previous rule was “full of red tape”, Sgamma said in an interview. “This rule cleans that up, makes it more practical.” Oil and gas drillers have “a four decade-long trend to reduce emissions”, and the new EPA rules recognize that reality, Sgamma said, adding that she hopes a Department of the Interior rule to be finalized in coming days will show a similar practical streak. The pending rule by the Bureau of Land Management applies to fracking sites on public lands. Environmentalists contend energy companies have already demonstrated they can comply with tougher monitoring and that only poorly operated companies were having trouble with the new requirements. “Once again, the Trump administration is putting the interests of the worst-operated oil and gas companies ahead of the health and welfare of everyday Americans,” said Matt Watson, an associate vice-president at the Environmental Defense Fund. On Tuesday, California governor Jerry Browntold a meeting in San Francisco ahead of a climate conference there that Donald Trump’s proposal to increase methane releases is “insane” and “borders on criminality”. “It perhaps is the most obvious and dangerous and irresponsible action by Mr Trump and that’s saying quite a lot,” Brown said. The EPA under Obama completed the existing rule in May 2016 and it took effect that August. Competing court challenges from the oil and gas industry and environmental groups, and EPA moves to freeze part of the Obama rule, have mired implementation. Tuesday’s action opens a 60-day period for public comment ahead of any final decision by the Trump administration.