Todd ‘Bubba’ Horowitz of the Bubba Trading Show shares his stock.
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to adopt new rules that would reverse regulations for methane gas emissions, including requirements to end oil and gas producers’ systems and procedures for detecting methane leaks in their systems, said administration officials.
The changes to the rule will apply to wells drilled and forwarded since 2016, removing the largest pipelines, storage sites and other parts of the transmission system from EPA oversight of smog and greenhouse gas emissions. The changes also reduce reporting requirements for the sector and, for some facilities, how often a plant should check for leaks from other pollutants, officials said.
US gas prices repeat STEADY AT $ 2.25 / GALLON
The new rules, expected to be signed and issued this week, address most of the key elements of two proposals from 2018 and 2019. Agency officials are complying with President Trump’s directive to reduce regulations on U.S. energy producers, and have said that the rules are eliminated are duplicates of other federal and state rules.
They were adopted in 2016 under former President Obama amid concerns over methane-gas leaks that contributed to climate change.
An oil rig and offshore support vessel. (iStock)
Methane accounts for about 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in capturing geothermal energy, according to estimates used by the EPA. Agencies show that the oil and gas industry has long been the largest emitter of methane, even before the shale boom.
When the drilling boom sent off natural gas, the EPA responded in 2016 with demands for companies to make plans to reduce emissions at new wells and the pipelines they feed. That included regular checks to close leaking valves, pipelines and tanks in the millions of miles of sprawling network that supplies home stoves, power plants, industrial sites and other consumers.
Unlocking these requirements was a priority for small and medium-sized oil and gas producers, who say the requirements were so costly to meet that in some places it would be useful to drill.
MAURITIUS RACES TO CONTAIN OIL SPILL, PROTECT COASTLINE
But major manufacturers, including international giants Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC, stood up for the rules, saying a lack of climate control undermined their promise that the American natural gas they sell would be a cleaner source of energy is.
In recent days, EPA and White House officials have tentatively agreed on a package for final rule after sometimes controversial negotiations, according to senior administration officials.
It is pending a final application from the Office of Management and Budget of the White House, where the EPA sent a final draft of the rule on Friday, one of those officials said.
As part of those talks, the White House agreed to lay down plans that would further ensure the rules, and reduce inspections to once a year from the current two times a year. The EPA said the environmental benefits of bi-annual inspections are so great that it would be legally difficult to justify fewer inspections, officials said.
In this March 10, 2020 photo, David Nickerson, CEO of Marine Well Conception Company, points to the hydrocarbon train passing on top of an oil spill disaster tanker, in Ingleside, Texas. (AP Photo / John L. Mone)
White House officials argued after EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler told them that creating a reason for fewer inspections could delay the rest of the methane rollback beyond the November 3 election and perhaps beyond Mr. Trump in office, senior administration officials said.
Their compromise calls for inspections twice a year across almost every oil and gas industry, officials said. This maintains the status quo for most operations; it makes it easier what would have been a quarter for inspection at compressor stations, which send natural gas from the wells through the pipe loops.
Government officials have largely sided with the smaller producers and are pushing to roll back the methane rules as much as possible. The central basis of their new policy is that the Obama administration got off to a bad start when it claimed that the EPA had the authority to regulate methane from oil and gas operations.
The Obama administration did not go through the proper scientific and legal process needed to justify the 2016 rules by first determining that the emission of greenhouse gases from oil and natural gas, primarily methane, causes or contributes to hazardous air pollution. , says the EPA in the new rules, according to senior administration officials.
That provision would make it more difficult for a new administration to regain that authority without a congressional mandate. And, most importantly, experts and legal experts say, the new policy stops the EPA from requiring companies to add leakage prevention systems to wells drilled years ago, something that is not currently required, but that the EPA would ultimately be required to do so had allowed the policies of the Obama era.
Leak monitoring would still be required, just not for methane directly. While the methane mandate is gone, the 2018 proposal adopted in this package will meet good requirements for requirements for volatile organic compounds, pollutants that cause smog. Agency analysts have said an advantage of that oversight is that it will capture most methane emissions as well.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOXBUSINESS
The agreement on the frequency of those inspections now sets the stage for the EPA to officially finalize these rules this week, officials said. And agents have been investigating the possibility of an event to mark the moment, with Mr Wheeler signing them Thursday in the Pittsburgh area, the heart of the country’s largest natural gas field, the Marcellus Shale, officials added. .
Several of the country’s largest oil and gas companies have large offices and operations near Pittsburgh, and the region is a major source of political support from Mr. Trump.
FAT FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICK HERE
Pennsylvania is one of the country’s largest swing states and Mr. Trump advised it to victory in 2016. He has boasted a pro-fossil fuel platform and exploited it with enthusiasm for Republicans in western Pennsylvania that grew alongside the oil and oil industry. gasindustry.
