The Biden administration has released final rules targeting methane emissions from the US oil and gas industry, as reported by Reuters on December 2. The new regulations will ban routine flaring of the natural gas produced by newly drilled oil wells and phase in a requirement for that gas to be captured instead of burned. Under the rules, oil companies will have to conduct strict leak monitoring of oil and gas wells and compressors, and reduce leaks from equipment such as pumps, storage tanks, and controllers. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will leverage an independent, third-party monitoring system that uses satellites and other remote-sensing technology to detect large methane releases from “super emitters”.

The EPA’s final rules are expected to prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane from entering the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038, in alignment with a global initiative signed by more than 150 countries to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030 on 2020 levels. In addition, these rules will be coordinated with a methane fee approved in the 2022 climate law. This fee, set to take effect next year, will impose charges of up to USD1,500 per ton of methane on energy producers exceeding a specified level of emissions. Notably, the release of the new rules coincided with 50 major oil and gas companies, representing almost half of global production, gathering at the COP28 climate summit and pledging to achieve near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030.

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-lays-out-plan-cop-28-slash-climate-super-pollutant-oil-gas-2023-12-02/

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-finalizes-standards-slash-methane-pollution-combat-climate

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/02/climate/cop28-methane-announcement-climate/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/biden-methane-epa-climate-oil-gas-cop28-6d37e9da49944e9a8c0b08aeb3ddc73e