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In this Feb. 27, 2020, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler pauses as he testifies during a House Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
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New rules to reduce methane controls will be announced by EPA on Thursday

AP photo / Alex Brandon

New rules to reduce methane controls will be announced by EPA on Thursday

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will announce Thursday it will end or reduce controls on emissions and leaks of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — from natural gas wells, pipelines, compressor stations and gas storage facilities.

The long-expected next step of the Trump administration’s broad rollback of Obama-era policies aimed at combating climate change will be announced in Pittsburgh by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who said Wednesday the new regulations will reduce industry regulatory costs while continuing to protect the environment.

The new rules would exempt low production oil and gas wells producing less than 15 barrels a day, from quarterly reporting requirements and end the Obama administration practice of aggregating emissions from wells, compressor stations and pipeline emissions for regulatory purposes, Mr. Wheeler said.

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They would also end federal regulations in place since 2016 that require oil and gas companies to install leak detection equipment and fix leaks when they are found.

Methane gas is burned off, or flared, from a well near Hickory, Pa. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country.
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“This will save industry an expected $100 million in compliance costs a year,” Mr. Wheeler said. “Our concern is about the small and medium sized companies like those operating in the Marcellus and Utica shales, and not putting overly burdensome regulations on those companies that are at the heart of [the industry’s] job growth.”

Mr. Wheeler is scheduled to announce the regulatory changes at the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District. The new rules will go into effect 60 days after they are printed in the Federal Register, which could take a month.

“We’ll still be getting the methane reductions,” Mr. Wheeler said, “because the same technology is used to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds and methane.”

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But the rule changes would allow emissions of an additional 5 million tons of methane from an industry that already emits more than 13 million tons according to several scientific studies and the Environmental Defense Fund, a national environmental organization.

“Our federal methane safeguards have been in place since 2016, protecting Americans from unhealthy and climate-damaging pollution. The Trump administration’s decision to reverse course is deeply and fundamentally flawed,” said Peter Zalzal, lead attorney for the EDF in a news release.

“Eliminating these safeguards would ignore the overwhelming body of scientific evidence documenting the urgent need to reduce methane pollution,” he stated.

In May, the EDF released a study that found fugitive emissions — leaks — from approximately 8,000 shale gas wells in Pennsylvania totaled 543,000 tons for 2017. Methane emissions from almost 73,000 older, vertical, or “conventional” gas wells totaled another 599,200 tons that year.

The EDF analysis, which projects methane emissions in the state through 2030, said those emissions will climb to 13 million tons under existing regulations, would drop to approximately 6.5 million tons if regulations were stronger and would increase to 19 million tons under the new rules.

Methane, which leaks from oil and gas wells during drilling and fracking, and from pipelines and compressor stations and other parts of the natural gas distribution system, accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is more than 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release. Because methane is so potent, and because the technology exists to capture fugitive emissions, doing so is the most effective way to slow the rate of global warming, the EDF stated.

The federal regulatory rollback comes as Pennsylvania is working toward enacting its own emissions reduction rule for methane and volatile organic compounds, which just went through a 60-day public comment period. As proposed, the rule would reduce VOC emissions by 4,404 tons a year and — as a co-benefit — methane by 75,603 tons per year from the approximately 11,500 existing shale gas well sites and connecting infrastructure, including compressor stations.

But environmentalists say the proposed rule is too weak because it exempts low-producing conventional wells from regular inspections. That means that of the more than 71,000 conventional wells, just 303 would be inspected.

In response to questions, Lauren Fraley, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman, said the Trump administration rule change does not affect DEP’s proposed volatile organic compound emissions limits for the oil and gas sector, which would also reduce methane emissions. The state rules would require operators to use best available technology to control emissions to the maximum extent from new sources within the state.

“DEP is again disappointed with the Trump administration’s undoing of important efforts to address climate change,” Ms. Fraley said in her email response. “

She said the DEP is considering comments it received during a recent 60-day public comment period and finalizing the new rules, which will then be reviewed by the state Environmental Quality Board.

David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, issued a statement stating that the industry has “every economic and environmental incentive” to capture methane.

“We greatly appreciate the administration’s commitment to American energy jobs,” Mr. Spigelmyer said, “and Pennsylvania’s shale producers will continue to drive new technologies and engineering solutions – including robust leak detection and repair programs as well as vapor recovery systems – that effectively identify, minimize and further eliminate any leaks.”

But not all gas companies support the EPA rules rollback. Shell, BP and ExxonMobil have supported stronger federal methane regulations for both new and existing sources, and have set voluntary methane emissions reduction goals.

“It is a big part of the climate problem,” Shell’s U.S. Country chair Gretchen Watkins said in a March 2019 Reuters article on the proposed methane rule changes, “and frankly we can do more.”

 Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. Twitter: @donhopey.

First Published: August 12, 2020, 9:44 p.m.

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