Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector will be directly
regulated by 2016 under a plan announced by the Obama administration
in March 2014. With methane's climate change impact
estimated to be more than 20 times greater than carbon dioxide over
a 100-year period, the methane strategy is the latest step in the
Obama administration's Climate Action Plan to cut greenhouse
gas emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
More recently, on April 15, 2014, EPA released five whitepapers regarding potentially
significant sources of emissions: compressors; emissions from
completions and ongoing production of hydraulically fractured
wells; leaks from gas production, processing, transmission, and
storage; and pneumatic devices. These papers now undergoing peer
review will likely serve as the foundation for EPA regulation as
the papers identify contributions from the sources and available
controls.
Despite EPA estimates, the rate and volume of methane emissions
from the oil and gas sector are hotly disputed. In September 2013,
the University of Texas—in partnership with the Environmental
Defense Fund and participating energy companies—found that
total methane emissions from natural gas production from all
sources were comparable to EPA estimates, but the methane emissions
from well completion flowback are 97 percent lower than EPA estimates from April
2013. At the same time, methane emissions from pneumatic
equipment and storage leaks were significantly higher than EPA
estimates. In contrast, researchers from Stanford and Harvard
published a February 2014 article in Science finding that methane is leaking from
oil and natural gas drilling sites and pipelines at rates 50
percent higher than EPA estimates.
The Climate Action Plan recognizes that states are the primary
regulators of oil and gas production activities and the
distribution of natural gas. Colorado is the first state to
directly target methane emissions. As such, Colorado's new regulations that
directly target methane emissions from oil and gas operations may
become a model for federal regulation, especially given that they
were developed by industry and environmentalists. Colorado intends
for its rules to complement the new source performance standards,
but they also apply along the entire production chain. This
includes monitoring and reporting for the well site, storage tanks,
gathering lines, compression stations, and processing plants, as
well as descriptions of the required pollution equipment and
control practices. The rules are expected to reduce methane
emissions in the state by approximately 65,000 tons per year.
Public comments on the five white papers regarding methane and VOC emissions from the oil and natural gas sector can be submitted to oilandgas.whitepapers@epa.gov until June 16, 2014.
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