It was only fair. The White House said a bill approving the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline's construction would get a chilly reception if it reached President Barack Obama's desk. Congressional Republicans were equally frosty toward the administration's announced steps to curb methane emissions from oil and gas operations.
US Senate James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who became chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee once the 114th Congress was sworn in, called the methane moves "a mandate designed to stifle our domestic energy industries despite the successful voluntary steps made by US oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions."
The administration's moves, which it announced Jan. 14, "will not only increase the cost to do business in America, but it will ultimately limit our nation's ability to become fully energy independent," he warned.
Inhofe said the announcement failed to provide sufficient benefits to justify the costs. "The Obama administration is unwilling to streamline existing regulatory hurdles on pipeline infrastructure as a means to reduce emissions, and instead is expanding its inefficient and complicated bureaucracy," he said.
US House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders also criticized the administration's moves. "Studies show that while our energy production has significantly increased, methane emissions have continued to decline," Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) jointly said. "This is something that should be celebrated, not bound by new red tape."
Success has come from new efficiencies resulting from technology and innovation, a commitment to continue enhancing safety, and greater permitting certainty, they said. Left unsaid was how much of this occurred at the state, instead of the federal, level.
Democrats applaud
Several Senate Democrats applauded the administration's announcement. Ranking Environment Committee Minority Member Barbara Boxer (Calif.) said it would require the oil and gas industry to reduce "a potent source of climate pollution." She urged Congress to support Sens. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) and Susan Collins's (R-Me.) 2014 "Super Pollutants Act" which aims to reduce methane and other short-lived pollutants' emissions.
Murphy also cheered the announcement, as did Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) who has introduced his own "leaky pipeline" bill.
Both sides likely won't give ground in the months ahead. The problem with the administration's strong stand is that it ignores efforts that already have identified problem areas such as pneumatic controllers.
The devices' reliability varies widely, and failures are extremely hard to predict. The American Petroleum Institute said in December that it is launching a new pneumatic controllers standard to develop common terms and improve emissions estimates. Others in industry, government, and academia are quietly examining the methane emissions problem in other ways.