The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports
Several groups that often are at odds over environmental rules are on the same side when it comes to easing methane regulations at oil and gas sites.
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.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back rules adopted in 2016 that require companies to identify and stop methane leaks from new and modified oil and gas production, pipeline and storage equipment.
The agency said existing controls on a separate class of chemicals that is also present in oil and gas — called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — make direct regulation of methane redundant and unnecessary.
The agency is also proposing an alternate rule to exempt the oil and gas storage and transmission sector from both the methane and volatile organic compound regulations.
But major companies that would see restrictions lifted on their operations if EPA finalizes the rule — including Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Equinor and Canonsburg-based Equitrans Midstream — wrote that they want national rules directly targeting methane.
Several of the companies said that easing methane regulations will erode public confidence in natural gas as a cleaner fossil fuel at a time when addressing climate change is an international priority.
Comments on the proposals were due last week.
“It is a remarkably rare event in which we feel compelled to comment, on an individual basis, on an EPA rulemaking proceeding,” wrote French energy giant Total, which has extensive operations in the United States. “But in this instance, EPA’s proposed action has the potential to undermine the significant actions that Total and others are taking to address the risks associated with global climate change.”
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that traps 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after it is released, making it a key target in efforts to mitigate climate change.
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