The bid’s climate plan aims to reduce methane emissions

The Biden administration is launching a far-reaching plan to reduce methane emissions, targeting a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and provides a stronger short-term impact than even carbon dioxide.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration on Tuesday launched a far-reaching plan to reduce methane emissions, targeting a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and provides a stronger short-term impact than even carbon dioxide.

The plan was announced as President Joe Biden concludes a two-day speech at a UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. During the summit, Biden promised to work with the EU and dozens of other nations to reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

Central to U.S. action is a long-awaited rule from the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten methane regulations for the oil and gas sector, as set out in one of Biden’s first executive orders.

The proposed rule will, for the first time, target reductions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide instead of focusing only on new wells, as previous rules have done.

“One of the most important things we can do in this crucial decade – to keep 1.5 degrees within reach – is to reduce our methane emissions as quickly as possible,” Biden said, referring to a global commitment to limit warming to 1 , 5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Celsius). degrees Fahrenheit) above the levels of the late 19th century.

Methane is “one of the most potent greenhouse gases in existence,” Biden said, adding that the new US rules and the global promise “are going to make a huge difference”, not only in the fight against climate change, but to improve health and reduce asthma and other respiratory problems.

Reducing methane leaks, “capturing methane to turn it into new revenue streams,” will save companies money and create “well-paying union jobs for our workers,” Biden said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the new rule, established under the Clean Air Act, would lead to significant reductions in methane emissions and other pollutants and would be stricter than a 2016 standard set under President Barack Obama. Congress reinstated the Obama-era standard last summer in a rare attempt by the majority Democrats to use the legislature to overthrow a rollback of legislation under President Donald Trump.

The EPA’s “historic action” will “ensure robust and lasting reductions in pollution across the country,” Regan said, adding that the new rule will protect communities near oil and natural gas sites and promote U.S. climate goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement .

Once completed, the proposed requirements will reduce methane emissions from U.S. drilling operations and equipment by approximately 75% by 2030 compared to 2005, the White House said.

The oil and natural gas industry is the country’s largest industrial source of methane, a very potent pollutant responsible for about a third of the current warming from human activities.

The oil and gas sector is also a leading source of other harmful air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds that contribute to ground-level ozone or smog, and air toxins such as benzene, which are emitted along with methane.

Environmental groups call methane reduction the fastest and most cost-effective course of action to curb global warming. Current rules for methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas wells apply only to sources built or modified after 2015, leaving more than 90% of the country’s nearly 900,000 well sites unregulated. Many of these sites are smaller, low-producing wells.

Fred Krupp, chairman of the Environmental Defense Fund, called the new rule “an important step that offers a major victory for nine million Americans living near active oil and gas sites.” But he said the EPA and other agencies need to do more to cut back on burning and leaks from so-called “marginal wells” that have disproportionately high emissions.

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobby group, has said it supports direct regulation of methane emissions from new and existing sources, but opposes congressional efforts to impose charges on methane leaks, calling them punitive and unnecessary. The industry says that leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas, have fallen, even though natural gas production has increased as a result of the ongoing fracking boom. Technological advances in recent years have made it cheaper and easier to find and repair natural gas leaks.

“The EPA has released a comprehensive proposal and we look forward to reviewing it in its entirety,” said API Senior Vice President Frank Macchiarola. The group will work with the EPA to help shape a final rule, “that is effective, feasible and designed to promote further innovation,” he said.

The administration’s plan includes new safety regulations from the transportation department to tighten the requirements for methane leaks from the country’s 3 million miles of pipelines.

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, is preparing to crack down on methane waste burned at drilling sites on public land. And the Ministry of Agriculture is working with farmers to establish so-called climate-smart standards to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon storage.

Biden has previously announced plans to intensify efforts to close leaks at old oil and gas wells and clean up abandoned coal mines. A Senate-approved infrastructure bill includes billions to recycle abandoned minefields and cover orphaned wells.

The administration also targets methane emissions from landfills with an emphasis on food loss and waste, serving as a significant contributor. The EPA has set itself a voluntary target of capturing 70% of methane emissions from US landfills.

Agriculture Minister Tom Vilsack said in an interview that officials are studying ways to reduce methane emissions from livestock, including changes in feed and the use of specialized equipment to convert manure into electricity.

“We just have a wealth of ways in which agriculture can promote methane reduction to help with the president’s goal of reducing” global methane consumption by 30%, “Vilsack told The Associated Press.

Ethan Lane, vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said his group has been working with the Biden administration “since day one to ensure the U.S. cattle industry is recognized for our strong record in environmental management,” including methane reductions.

“The administration cannot achieve lasting preservation without the acquisition of cattle producers,” he said.

Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Glasgow, Scotland, contributed to this story.

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