US House bill would curb oil, gas methane emissions

May 15, 2019
US Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) introduced a bill aimed at limiting methane emissions from oil and gas operations on May 14. “If we’re going to be serious about fixing the climate crisis, we have to be serious about curbing the release of methane into the atmosphere,” she said.

US Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) introduced a bill aimed at limiting methane emissions from oil and gas operations on May 14. “If we’re going to be serious about fixing the climate crisis, we have to be serious about curbing the release of methane into the atmosphere,” she said.

The measure would require oil and gas producers to capture 85% of all gas produced on public lands within 3 years of enactment, and 99% of all gas produced on such lands within 5 years of enactment. It also would ban venting of any natural gas on public lands, and prohibit methane flaring at any new wells established 2 years after the bill is passed, said DeGette, who is a House Natural Resources Committee member.

Specifically, she said the bill would reinstate two 2016 rules that the Obama administration put in place: the US Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Waste Prevention Rule, which limited the amount of methane that oil and gas producers operating on tribal or public lands could release, and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards, which set similar limits for any new or modified oil and gas wells in the US.

BLM formally replaced the first with a revised version last year (OGJ Online, Sept. 19, 2018). EPA issued a final rule amending its National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for refineries soon after (OGJ Online, Nov. 28, 2018).

DeGette said methane released by oil and gas producers is often accompanied by other pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds that can contribute to smog, and air toxics such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene that have been linked to serious public health problems such as reduced lung function, asthma, respiratory ailments, and cardiovascular disease.

Oil and gas association officials criticized the measure. “The bill is nothing more than a fundraising hook. As a constituent, I’ve seen this multiple times in recent months, where the congresswoman drops a bill in the hopper and turns around with a fundraising e-mail,” Western Energy Alliance Pres. Kathleen Sgamma said in Denver.

“The good news is methane emissions have fallen 24% even as oil and natural gas production have increased 65% and 19%, respectively between 2011 and 2017. That’s according to data from EPA and the Energy Information Administration,” Sgamma continued.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].