EPA's revised methane rule would impose tougher fossil fuel measures

Nov. 12—The Environmental Protection Agency issued a revised version of its proposed methane rule Friday that would impose tougher measures on the fossil fuel industry than an earlier draft of the regulations aimed at curbing the potent greenhouse gas.

The EPA announced the supplemental draft rule at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt where President Joe Biden spoke Friday about the U.S. stepping up its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, including through the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

This methane rule will have a stiff regulatory impact in New Mexico, where the oil-rich Permian Basin enables the state to have the second-highest fossil fuel production in the country.

But EPA officials tout the environmental benefits, estimating that by 2030 it would cut methane emissions to 87 percent below 2005 levels.

First proposed last year, the rule would cover all oil wells throughout the country, going beyond the Obama-era rule of regulating wells installed after 2015.

Now the EPA has added provisions that would require more frequent well inspections, restrict the venting and flaring of natural gas and phase out leak-prone pneumatic equipment within several years.

Environmentalists hailed the revisions as an improvement over the earlier version but said the proposed rule still could be strengthened.

"This is a quite strong rule," said Camilla Feibelman, executive director of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande Chapter. "The one area where we'd really like to see some improvement is when it comes to the banning of routine venting and flaring."

Under the proposed rule, operators are required to look for alternative ways to use surplus natural gas and are permitted to vent and flare if an engineer certifies it's not feasible or is unsafe to funnel it elsewhere.

Feibelman said the EPA's rule instead should align with the state Oil Conservation Division's rule, which bans venting and flaring except in emergencies. The state agency's rule also requires operators to capture 98 percent of their methane by 2026.

The EPA will take public comment on this supplemental version until Feb. 13 and hold virtual hearings Jan. 10 and 11. The agency will issue a final rule sometime in 2023.

Curbing methane is imperative because it has 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide in a 20-year period and accounts for a quarter of global warming, climate scientists say.

One change in the proposal that conservationists applaud and the industry decries is a provision that requires all wells to be inspected, no matter how little oil they produce.

Industry groups contend it's too onerous on smaller operators.

"We remain concerned about the regulatory burden on low-producing wells," Kathleen Sgamma, president of Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, wrote in an email. "Small wells can quickly become uneconomic with onerous rules and can be shut down when their operators, which are mostly small businesses, cannot absorb the additional regulatory burden."

There are about 760,000 marginal wells producing about 8 percent of America's oil and natural gas, she added, so shutting them down by regulation would eliminate "an important source of energy at a time of high energy prices."

Another industry advocate wrote in an email that his group recognizes the need to manage emissions, but with this updated rule, the EPA has aligned with environmentalists.

"The EPA has once again chosen to ignore industry input in favor of environmental groups who share President Biden's goal of ending all oil and gas production immediately without consideration of the impacts on New Mexicans," wrote Jim Winchester, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico.

One of the group's concerns, Winchester wrote, is with the "overreaching" restrictions on pneumatic equipment that will stifle development in areas such as the San Juan Basin and shutter thousands of still-productive marginal wells throughout the Permian.

The increased frequency of inspections also is unnecessary, redundant and a significant burden on small operators, he wrote.

But conservationists have said that increased oversight of low-producing wells is necessary because they emit about half the methane into the atmosphere.

Operators would have to conduct a look, listen and touch inspection quarterly on a site with a single or with small wells.

On sites with two or three wells, they would have to do a sensory inspection quarterly plus examine them every six months with instruments such as an optical gas imaging camera.

Sites with major oil production would have to conduct bimonthly sensory inspections and quarterly probes with detection devices.

Pneumatic devices would have to be replaced or retrofitted so there are zero emissions within about four and a half years after the final rule is issued.

Tannis Fox, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, said the proposed changes are a significant improvement and give more attention to front-line communities that have taken the brunt of pollution.

"And we're going to be looking at it to suggest ways to strengthen the rule," Fox said. "Climate change is here and now. And we've got to take the most aggressive action we can."

Another good addition to the rule is the "super emitter response program," Fox said.

Super emitters are large leaks — 220.5 pounds or more of methane per hour — which often are caused by glitches, such as unlit flares spewing gas or open hatches on storage tanks, she said. Studies show they account for as much as half of all emissions from oil and gas operations, she added.

The program would allow EPA-approved third parties to detect leaks and notify operators, who then must fix them, she said, adding that it would help protect front-line communities from hazardous pollution.

It also would use data and expertise from regulatory agencies and qualified sources with access to remote detection technology, she said.

"This is a valuable tool to help protect frontline communities," Fox said.

A spokesman for the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association said the EPA hasn't given enough time to see how well the state's recently implemented rules designed to reduce methane waste and emissions are working.

For instance, the methane waste rule and ozone precursor rule require companies to reduce the number of pneumatic devices across the state, spokesman Joe Vigil said, adding it was a measure the association supported.

The ozone precursor rule seeks to curb the nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emanating from oil fields that form ground-level ozone, which can cause respiratory problems.

Because it reduces methane tied to ozone, conservationists say it complements the federal methane rule.

Feibelman, of the Sierra Club, said with the industry making record profits extracting oil from public lands, they shouldn't complain about a more stringent methane rule that protects public health.

"I think they can afford to keep our neighborhood air clean in New Mexico," she said.