A misguided strategy
Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler was in the Hill District on Aug. 13 to confirm the Trump administration’s decision to rescind federal regulations on methane emissions. This shortsighted rule change will not improve the environment or the public health of American citizens.
Oil and gas operators, who have facilitated the natural gas boom that has made America the world’s largest gas producer, are the biggest industrial source of methane emissions in the U. S.
Methane is the main component of natural gas, and despite having a shorter life span than CO2, it is exponentially more effective at trapping heat, making it a dangerous greenhouse gas that accelerates climate change and exacerbates air pollution.
Energy companies have been producing natural gas at record volumes — with a projected increase of 50% by 2040 — ensuring that methane will remain a major source of emissions for decades to come.
A report published in the journal Nature concluded that global emissions of methane from oil and gas production have been greatly underestimated, and the true numbers could be up to 40% higher than previously reported.
A study by the Environmental Defense Fund found that in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, drillers in Pennsylvania emitted more than 1.1 million tons of methane into the atmosphere, 16 times the amount they reported to state officials.
Under the auspices of the Clean Air Act, the Obama administration attempted to regulate methane by introducing rules that required producers to detect and repair methane leaks in their systems installed after 2015. Plugging these leaks was seen as a cost- effective way to address emissions. This was the low- hanging fruit in the campaign to mitigate climate change that Mr. Wheeler has put back on the tree.
Undoing efforts to strengthen industry vigilance is neither a strategy nor a vision, and it will simply transfer the costs from the fossil fuel industry to the American people in the form of degraded air and the sundry effects of more methane in the atmosphere.
Fortunately, the Trump administration’s indifference to climate does not affect Pennsylvania’s ability to require producers to control their emissions in a reasonable and responsible way.
The focus of Pennsylvania’s methane reduction strategy has been on newer sources of emissions; however, this doesn’t prevent the state from also establishing regulations on wells and machinery constructed before 2018, which make up the vast majority of the fossil fuel infrastructure in the state.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is working on rules that would control the emissions of volatile organic compounds from older sites; however, Pennsylvania shale gas contains low levels of VOCs, which means that, in the words of DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell, “a large amount of methane may be emitted without triggering the VOC control thresholds.”
The state has the authority to expand the scope of methane regulation, which would include quarterly inspections of sites using leak detection repair technologies.
As the nation’s second- largest gas producing state, Pennsylvania should be at the forefront of these regulations. We need our state officials to prioritize public health, and they can do this by better strengthening methane management in the commonwealth.