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US President Joe Biden announced a range of domestic actions
aimed notably at the oil and natural gas sector that the White
House said will help as part of a push to reduce nearly one-third
of worldwide methane emissions by the decade's end under a global
pledge launched with the EU on 2 November.
Unveiled on the second day of the UN COP26 meeting in Glasgow,
the actions recognize the opportunity capturing methane presents
because of its potency as a GHG. Although a short-lived GHG,
methane has a global warming potential that is at least 80 times
that of CO2 over a 20-year span.
The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report
said methane is responsible for one-third of current global warming
and another UN multi-agency "United in Science" report on
climate change said reductions in atmospheric methane in the short
term could support reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.
"One of the most important things we can do in this decisive
decade—to keep 1.5 degrees [Celsius] in reach—is reduce our
methane emissions as quickly as possible," Biden said, in formally
launching the joint EU-US global pledge,
which he first announced at the virtual Major Economies Forum on
Energy and Climate in September.
Calling it "the single-most effective strategy we have to slow
global warming in the near term," Biden said nearly 100 countries
have signed onto the pledge, representing nearly half the globe's
methane emissions, or 70% of global GDP.
The White House said the signees include 15 of the world's top
30 methane emitters. That group includes the US, EU, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, Iraq, Vietnam, and
Canada.
The International Energy Agency ranks Russia, the US, the UAE,
Turkmenistan, and Iraq in descending order as the top five global
methane emitters from the oil and gas sector.
US Methane Emissions Reduction Action
Plan
At the global pledge launch, Biden released the US Methane Emissions Reduction
Action Plan, which includes various actions his administration
is taking to tackle methane emissions.
The plan to a large extent targets methane leaks arising from
the extraction, production, storage, transportation, and
distribution of oil and gas products, but it also tackles emissions
from the agriculture sector and landfills.
"There is no question that President Biden is taking a
broad-based approach to tightening existing guidance on new source
wells, expanding to existing production, and moving down into the
transportation system, looking to improve safety, but also to lower
unintentional methane releases," Kevin Birn, IHS Markit vice
president for GHG estimation and coordination, told Net-Zero
Business Daily.
As Biden noted in his 2 November speech, the plan includes a long-awaited regulation from
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit, plug, and
repair releases of methane from extracting, processing, and
production of oil and gas from new and modified operations. For the
first time, it also includes the same standards for existing
operations.
The proposed rule builds on oil and gas industry practices
already in place and then some more.
Increased monitoring
For instance, EPA is seeking increased monitoring at well sites
and compressor stations to detect and plug methane leaks. At well
sites with estimated methane emissions of at least 3 metric tons
(mt) per year, EPA will require quarterly monitoring for leaks and
prompt repairs for any that are found. This provision alone would
result in routine monitoring at 300,000 well sites nationwide that
are responsible for 86% of fugitive emissions.
Among other provisions, the agency also is proposing to give
owners and operators the flexibility to use advanced detection
technology that can find major leaks more rapidly and at lower cost
than ever before. It also is proposing standards to eliminate
venting of associated gas and requiring capture and sale of gas
where a sales line is available—at new and existing oil
wells.
Not only would EPA's proposal address existing sources
nationwide for the first time, but it would also take several
significant steps forward from 2016 standards that were never
implemented, according to the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.
The 2016 regulations for new and existing oil and gas operations
were held up by litigation and then repealed in 2020. According to
Clean Air Task Force, the 2020 replacement regulation essentially
took methane out of the equation entirely and focused on plugging
leaks of volatile organic compounds that are ground-level ozone
precursors and also released in the production process.
However, the Democrats in the US Congress were successful in overturning the 2020 regulation
in July after invoking the Congressional Review Act, a rarely used
tool to overturn federal regulations by a simple majority. This
enabled EPA to write the new rules, which now have a 30-day public
comment period before final review.
Along with the proposed new regulation, EPA also said 2 November
it will issue a supplemental rule in 2022 that will address methane
leaks from abandoned and unplugged wells, opportunities to improve
and minimize unintentional flares and pipeline "pigging" or
maintenance, and tank-truck loading operations.
According to EPA, the impact of its proposed rules for existing
and new oil and gas wells would add "pennies" to the price of a
thousand cubic feet of gas or a barrel of oil and would reduce 41
million mt of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035. This is the
equivalent of 920 million mt of CO2, which is "more than the amount
of carbon dioxide emitted from all US passenger cars and commercial
aircraft in 2019." In 2030 alone, the rule would reduce methane
emissions from sources covered in the proposal by 74% compared with
2005.
The agency's regulatory impact analysis revealed that the
proposal, once finalized, would yield nearly $4.5 billion in net
climate benefits each year, with total net benefits valued at $48
billion to $49 billion from 2023 through 2035. It also would
increase recovery of gas that otherwise would go to waste which
would be valued at $690 million for 2030 alone.
"By building on existing technologies and encouraging innovative
new solutions, we are committed to a durable final rule that is
anchored in science and the law, that protects communities living
near oil and natural gas facilities, and that advances our nation's
climate goals under the Paris Agreement," EPA Administrator Michael
Regan said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute cautiously welcomed the
proposed rules for new and existing sources, calling it "sweeping
in scope" and said it would work closely with EPA to "help shape a
final rule that is effective, feasible, and designed to encourage
further innovation."
Likewise, the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC)
said it supports "reasonable regulation" and exhorted the
administration to use the EPA regulatory process, not penalties,
for bringing about reductions. The AXPC was referring to the
methane fee imposed on oil and gas operators for failing to plug
leaks.
The White House proposed this fee as part of its Build Back
Better agenda, and the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce
Committee recommended its adoption in the budget reconciliation
measure that would implement Biden's climate agenda. Right now, the
methane fee is still in play even though Biden apparently dropped
it from a pared-down compromise on the
budget measure.
Birn wasn't surprised by the oil industry's reaction, saying
"the oil and gas industry is also responding to pressure to compete
on carbon, and they are implementing new technologies to lower the
chance of fugitive emissions and in better monitoring and detection
technology; so, when leaks to occur they can find them and respond
more rapidly."
Environmental groups, though pleased with the administration's
steps, said the EPA could have made the rules more stringent based
on the advancements made in leak detection technology. They
especially were disappointed with the EPA decision to write a
separate rule on flaring.
Sarah Smith, program director at Clean Air Task Force, said the
EPA proposal represents an "important first step" in backing the
Biden administration's climate ambition with action at home.
"While there are clear opportunities to improve the rules,
including by strengthening the leak inspection standards and the
rules for when companies can flare gas, they put the US on solid
footing as it champions the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 and set
the stage for the US to ratchet up ambition and action toward final
safeguards that maximally reduce emissions," Smith said in a
statement.
Plugging leaks on public lands, pipelines
Biden also outlined plans for the US Department of Interior to
cap nearly 40% of the 2.7 million abandoned oil wells and about
600,000 orphaned gas wells that remain unplugged and were
responsible for leaking 263,000 mt of methane (6.6 million mt of
CO2e) in 2019.
But those plans are based on legislation that remains stuck in
the US Congress.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which the US
Senate passed and awaits passage in the House of Representatives
includes a $4.7-billion well plugging program that, if enacted,
will commission Interior to direct well plugging activities on
federal, state, private, and Tribal lands.
Coinciding with the 2 November announcement of the Biden action
plan, the US Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has started to issue a
series of additional rules for gas pipelines.
In addition to being a major safety hazard, the White House said
ruptures are a particularly large source of pipeline methane
emissions, with a single rupture from a large, high-pressure gas
pipeline releasing more than 1,300 mt of methane.
As part of this plan, PHMSA also expects to finalize three rules
in the coming months that would improve safety and plug leaks from
pipeline and storage tank valves and ruptured pipelines, whether
they transport oil and gas products from wellheads to central
collection facilities, transport them across state lines or
distribute them to homes.
The first rule would require automatic shut-off valves, the
second would regulate at least 300,000 miles of transmission lines
to reduce the frequency of leaks, and the third issued November 2 would tackle
gas gathering lines. The White House said the third will curb leaks
and ruptures from 400,000 miles of previously unregulated pipelines
that transport oil and gas products from production wellheads to
central collection sites.
PHMSA for its part estimates that its regulatory efforts have
the potential to provide annual methane reductions of as much as 20
million mt of CO2e a year.
Methane reductions
A UN report released in May said existing
technologies can capture about 30% of the methane emissions from
oil and gas operations, coal mining, wastewater treatment
processes, and landfills.
Methane Action, a nonprofit group of scientists, lawyers, and
activists, delivered a Declaration on Reducing Methane
to the US COP26 delegation led by Biden and delegations from other
countries.
In that declaration, the scientists noted that current
atmospheric methane levels at 1.9 parts per million are now higher
than at any time in the last 800,000 years and rising faster than
those for other climate pollutants. They called on Biden to
establish governance and a specific timeline for developing,
testing, and deploying methane removal technologies on an urgent
basis.
Jean Su, energy justice director for the nonprofit Center for
Biological Diversity, said the time has run out for the Biden
administration to tinker around the edges.
"Cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector isn't
enough to meet science-based climate targets without also limiting
fossil fuel production. If Biden wants to be a true climate leader,
he needs to set a near-zero methane leakage rate and end new oil
and gas project approvals to avoid cataclysmic warming," Su said in
a statement.
Posted 02 November 2021 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate and Energy Research Analyst