Western Energy Alliance Supports EPA’s Final Methane Rule

DENVER -- Western Energy Alliance welcomes the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of a final methane rule, the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) OOOOa rule. The following is a statement from Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma:
 
“Western Energy Alliance is pleased that EPA has finalized the methane rule. The rule is a sensible combination of technical fixes to the 2016 rule, as well as a correction to the violations of the Clean Air Act present in the original rule. Throughout this process, environmental groups and the media have misrepresented the rule changes as the Trump Administration rolling back any regulation of methane. This is a willfully false narrative that luckily, Administrator Wheeler had the courage to stand against. I use the word ‘courage’ intentionally as the outright lies about this rule by the environmental lobby are calculated as a way of achieving political goals without doing the hard work of following the law. Most Administrators have withered under that pressure, or were part of such efforts themselves.

​“Every single molecule of methane from new oil and natural gas wells will be captured by this revised rule. Methane Leak Detection and Repair, tank and pneumatic controls, and controls from the wellhead to the gas plant remain. The difference is that EPA has recognized that the Obama Administration failed to do a proper endangerment finding for methane along with a significant contribution finding, thereby violating the Clean Air Act. Administrator Wheeler’s EPA has corrected that major violation of the Clean Air Act by regulating methane as a co-benefit of controlling VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).
 
“Likewise, the Obama Administration violated the Clean Air Act by failing to do a source determination for the transmission and storage sector. Regulating that sector of the industry remains an option, but to do so requires EPA to follow the law and go through the full process. The Obama Administration, as with shortcuts in other areas, failed to follow the law at the behest of an environmental lobby seeking to impose its goals without being bound by the democratic process inherent in an open, public rulemaking process. Administrator Wheeler has corrected those legal violations while continuing to regulate methane.”
 
“Another source of misinformation surrounding this rule involves the oil and natural gas industry’s contribution to methane. Numbers become misquoted or are not updated with the latest inventory data, so here are the numbers:

• Methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG) 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). Because CO2 is by far the largest GHG, any inventory puts all GHGs in carbon dioxide equivalents, which takes into account their full potency and therefore, enables comparison. EPA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change use the scientifically accepted number of 25.
• Those who cite GHG inventories but then say that methane is 25, 30, or 80 times more potent, whatever number they use, are either deliberately trying to obfuscate and make methane sound like a greater contributor than it is, or are confused. Converting to carbon dioxide equivalents already factors in the additional potency.
• According to the latest EPA GHG inventory, methane makes up 9.5% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
• Of that, the oil and natural gas industry accounts for 27.8% of U.S. methane emissions. It is not the largest human or industrial source of emissions. Agriculture is the largest contributor, accounting for 39.9% of U.S. methane emissions.
• EPA finds the entire oil and natural gas industry accounts for 2.64% of total U.S. GHG emissions. The numbers behind that percentage are 176.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MMT CO2 Eq) compared to total U.S. GHG emissions of 6,676.6 MMT CO2 Eq. The upstream sector, the target of the 2016 and 2020 OOOOa rules, accounts for 1.15% (76.6 MMT CO2 Eq) of that.

• EPA’s analysis of the rule finalized today estimates it could lead to a 1.4 MMT CO2 Eq increase compared to the previous rule, which represents about 0.02% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

• Western Energy Alliance believes the estimated increase will be even lower, given that in just a few years’ time, even without rules that apply to existing sources, the vast majority of wells will be subject to the 2020 NSPS OOOOa rule because of the decline in production that naturally occurs from shale wells.

• To put that small increase into perspective, last year fuel switching to natural gas in the electricity sector reduced 444 MMT CO2 Eq. Since 2005, the oil and natural gas industry has enabled the United States to reduce 2,823 MMT CO2 Eq, more than wind and solar combined, which have reduced 1,799 MMT CO2 Eq.

• Likewise, our industry has enabled the United States to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions 10.2% below 2005 levels.

 
See our paper Natural Gas Climate Change Benefits for more information.
 

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