The Trump administration on Thursday proposed rescinding Obama-era limits on oil and gas industry emissions of methane, one of the main pollutants scientists link to climate change, Trend reports citing Reuters.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that easing a 2016 regulation that specifically targeted methane emissions from oil and gas wells, pipelines and storage would save energy companies up to $123 million through 2025. The plan will undergo a period of public comment before being finalized, and environmental groups pledged court action to try to block repeal of the limits.
The proposal “removes unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said.
The EPA said it will keep rules issued in 2012 that limit emissions known as volatile organic compounds that cause smog and also control methane emissions. Anne Idsal, acting assistant administrator for air and radiation at EPA told reporters she expects methane emissions to fall in coming years due to the 2012 rule and because energy companies have an incentive to minimize leaks of methane, which has value as the main component of natural gas.
Environmentalists say energy companies do not always do enough to control leaks, partially because low prices resulting from a natural gas glut sometimes make it cheaper to release the methane.
Some large energy companies including BP favor federal regulation of methane, saying the regulatory certainty is preferable to a patchwork of varying rules by states and legal challenges by environmentalists. BP has said it is already taking steps to limit methane emissions.
The move is President Donald Trump’s latest easing of rules designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including many put forth by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Trump, who insists he is an environmentalist, has also relaxed rules on carbon emissions from vehicles and intends to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.
Concern about climate has spiked amid fires in the Arctic and the Amazon rainforest, the melting of ice in Greenland, and as Hurricane Dorian threatened Florida. Democrats seeking their party’s nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election will participate in a series of town halls on climate next week.