EPA weighs proposed methane reduction rule

PITTSBURGH – Depending upon who the speaker was at Tuesday’s public hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency is either going too far or not far enough in its proposal to greatly reduce allowable methane emissions from oil and gas production.
During all-day hearings at the Moorhead Federal Building in Pittsburgh, at which more than 100 people were scheduled to testify, environmental and oil and gas industry groups provided widely diverse views on how the agency should proceed with its proposal to cut emissions by 40 to 45 percent by 2025, compared with 2012 levels.
The EPA has estimated the new rule would cost the industry from $320 million to $420 million annually by 2025 but said it would reduce health-care costs and have other benefits totaling about $460 million to $550 million a year.
Tuesday’s hearings in Pittsburgh followed public hearings in Denver and Dallas last week.
Oil and gas industry groups – specifically the American Petroleum Institute and the Marcellus Shale Coalition – testified that they have been working to reduce methane emissions, and said that they have been steadily reducing emissions for some time at both the wellhead and midstream facilities.
Matthew Todd, senior policy adviser for the American Petroleum Institute, which has more than 625 member companies and groups and supports 9.8 million jobs in the U.S., noted that the industry would be directly affected by the proposed regulations.
According to Todd, the oil and gas industry “has voluntarily led the way in its pursuit of improved operations to safely maximize the recovery and capture of oil and gas.”
He claimed that even as U.S. oil and natural gas production has surged, methane emissions have declined significantly, stating that methane emission from hydraulically fractured natural gas wells have fallen nearly 79 percent since 2005 and total methane emissions from natural gas systems are down 11 percent over the same period.
“These reductions have occurred during a time when total U.S. gas production has increased 44 percent,” Todd said.
Some of Todd’s testimony was echoed by Eric Cowden, community outreach manager for the MSC, which represents 250 natural gas production, midstream and supply chain members in Pennsylvania.
“Natural gas producers have a vested interest in reducing and minimizing methane leaks from production sites,” Cowden said, noting that methane is the primary constituent of natural gas that is being produced and transported to market.
He stated that three years ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection expanded reporting requirements to include methane and add sources such as compressor stations serving conventional natural gas and coalbed methane production.
Cowden said that with respect to methane, the 2013 emissions inventory data released by DEP in April showed a 13 percent decrease in total cumulative emissions from the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.
He noted that in addition to comprehensive data inventories, Pennsylvania has adopted aggressive permitting standards for natural gas-fired engines and equipment at compressor stations. Those standards also include new criteria for unconventional well owners and operators, as well as requirements for a Leak Detection and Repair program to identify whether fugitive methane and VOC emissions are being released from the operations.
But representatives from a variety of environmental groups testified Tuesday that the EPA’s proposal doesn’t go far enough.
Larry Schweiger, president of PennFuture, said the abundance of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere is rapidly changing the climate.
Stating that methane from the oil and gas industry represents about 25 percent of all methane being released today, “the new standards proposed by the EPA are an important first step,” Schweiger said, adding that the rules only cover new and modified methane emissions.
“We’re calling on Pennsylvania to enforce mitigation from existing sources including abandoned wells across the state,” he said.
That request was repeated by Jessica Helm, a board member of the Sierra Club, who noted that a molecule of methane produces 85 times the heat of a molecule of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
Steven Hamburg, lead scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said his studies show that the industry is producing 700 metric tons of methane a year, equal to the output of CO2 from 150 coal-fired electric plants.
As part of its updated proposal, the EPA also is seeking to require owners and operators to find and repair leaks, which can be a significant source of both methane and volatile organic compound pollution.
But the MSC’s Cowden noted that under Pennsylvania’s 2013 revisions, its LDAR program “covers emissions requirements which are more stringent than the proposed federal rules for other sources, such as engines and tanks.”