Watching Government: When reforms aren’t rollbacks

As the Sierra Club called the American Petroleum Institute and its members “the driving force in lobbying the Trump administration to roll back commonsense protections that would limit methane pollution and other dangerous emissions from the oil and gas sector,” API Upstream Operations Director Erik Milito suggested that the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Bureau of Land Management’s planned emissions limit changes were more technical corrections than rollbacks.

“Our industry has a very strong incentive to capture more natural gas emissions because they literally cost our members money. But the best solutions aren’t always prescriptive,” he told OGJ in a Sept. 18 phone interview. While US gas production has climbed more than 50% since 1990, innovation in the industry helped methane emissions drop 14% during the same period, he said.

API and its members worked with EPA to put smart, cost-effective leak detection rules in place in 2012 and 2016 by taking the lead in developing the appropriate technology, Milito said. “Companies have been finding far fewer leaks in the surveys they have conducted than EPA expected,” he noted.

When API petitioned EPA to reconsider certain parts of the 2016 final rule, it recommended revisiting the frequency of leak detection and repair surveys at well sites and compressor stations. Data from several companies indicated that the initial or uncontrolled leak incidence was significantly lower than the basis of EPA’s original rule analysis.

“A lower initial leak incidence results in a lower baseline mass of emissions from leaks,” API Senior Policy Advisor Matthew Todd said in an Apr. 22 comment to EPA on the trade association’s behalf.

“Using EPA’s cost effectiveness calculations with the lower initial leak incidence of 0.4% calculated from this analysis, it is clear that leak detection and repair programs at oil and gas well sites are not cost-effective, even under the multipollutant scenario EPA utilized in the rulemaking,” Todd said.

The analysis supports reducing the frequency of well site emissions surveys from semiannual to annual, he indicated.

Beyond requirements

Milito said it’s also important to put the estimated additional emissions from EPA’s final rule in context.

“The amount is negligible—about 0.02% of all US greenhouse gas emissions and 0.65% of our industry’s total US methane share. Meanwhile, the industry keeps going beyond what regulations require to drive emissions lower,” Milito said.

API formed The Environmental Partnership in December, which has grown to 47 members, to reduce emissions further, Milito said. It has held workshops already in Midland, Tex., and Pittsburgh, and a third is planned for Denver. “Some companies are setting their own targets. The partnership is a tool to help them reach their goals,” he said.