EPA sets out rules for proposed ‘methane fee’ for waste generated by oil and natural gas companies

WASHINGTON – Oil and natural gas companies for the primary time must pay a price for methane emissions that exceed positive ranges below a rule proposed Friday by the Biden management.

The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule follows thru on a directive from Congress integrated in the 2022 climate law. The new price is meant to inspire trade to undertake perfect practices that scale back emissions of methane and thereby keep away from paying.

Methane is a local weather “super pollutant” this is stronger within the brief time period than carbon dioxide and is accountable for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and natural gas sector is the biggest business supply of methane emissions within the United States, and advocates say aid of methane emissions is the most important approach to sluggish local weather trade.

Excess methane produced this yr would lead to a price of $900 in keeping with ton, with charges emerging to $1,500 in keeping with ton by 2026.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated the proposed price would paintings in tandem with a final rule on methane emissions EPA announced last month. The price, officially referred to as the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, will inspire early deployment of to be had applied sciences to cut back methane emissions and different damaging air pollution earlier than the brand new requirements take impact, he stated.

The rule introduced in December features a two-year phase-in duration for companies to do away with regimen flaring of natural gas from new oil wells.

“EPA is delivering on a comprehensive strategy to reduce wasteful methane emissions that endanger communities and fuel the climate crisis,” Regan stated in a commentary. When finalized later this yr, the proposed methane price will set era requirements that can “incentivize industry innovation” and spur action to reduce pollution, he said.

Leading oil and gas companies already meet or exceed performance levels set by Congress under the climate law, meaning they will not have to pay the proposed fee, Regan and other officials said.

Sen. Tom Carper, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he was pleased the administration was moving forward with the methane fee as directed by Congress.

“We know methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere in the short term,” said Carper, D-Del. He said the program “will incentivize producers to cut wasteful and excessive methane emissions during oil and gas production.”

New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said oil and gas companies have long calculated that it’s cheaper to waste methane through flaring and other techniques than to make necessary upgrades to prevent leaks.

“Wasted methane never makes its way to consumers, but they are nevertheless stuck with the bill,” Pallone said. The proposed methane fee “will ensure consumers no longer pay for wasted energy or the harm its emissions can cause.”

Republicans call the methane fee a tax that could raise prices on natural gas.

Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, called the proposed fee “commonplace sense,” including that oil and gas companies will have to be held responsible for methane air pollution, a number one supply of world warming.

In a similar building, EPA stated it’s operating with trade and others to strengthen how methane emissions are reported, bringing up a lot of research appearing that and oil and gas companies have considerably underreported their methane emissions to the EPA below the company’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.

The local weather legislation, officially referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act, established a waste-emissions rate for methane from oil and gas amenities that file emissions of greater than 25,000 metric heaps of carbon dioxide identical in keeping with yr to the EPA. The proposal introduced Friday sets out main points of the way the associated fee might be carried out, together with how exemptions might be carried out.

The company stated it expects that over the years, fewer oil and gas websites might be charged as they scale back their emissions in compliance with the guideline.