FACT SHEET:
Administration Takes Steps Forward on Climate Action Plan by Announcing Actions
to Cut Methane Emissions
The Obama Administration is committed to
taking responsible steps to address climate change and help ensure a cleaner,
more stable environment for future generations. As part of that effort, today,
the Administration is announcing a new goal to cut methane emissions from the
oil and gas sector by 40 – 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025, and a set of
actions to put the U.S. on a path to achieve this ambitious goal.
U.S. oil production is at the highest
level in nearly 30 years, providing important energy security and economic
benefits. The U.S. is also now the largest natural gas producer in the world,
providing an abundant source of clean-burning fuel to power and heat American
homes and businesses. Continuing to rely on these domestic energy resources is
a critical element of the President’s energy strategy. At the same time,
methane – the primary component of natural gas – is a potent greenhouse gas,
with 25 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year
period.
Methane emissions accounted for nearly
10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012, of which nearly 30 percent
came from the production transmission and distribution of oil and natural gas.
Emissions from the oil and gas sector are down 16 percent since 1990 and current
data show significant reductions from certain parts of the sector, notably well
completions. Nevertheless, emissions from the oil and gas sector are projected
to rise more than 25 percent by 2025 without additional steps to lower them.
For these reasons, a strategy for cutting methane emissions from the oil and
gas sector is an important component of efforts to address climate change.
The steps announced today are also a
sound economic and public health strategy because reducing methane emissions
means capturing valuable fuel that is otherwise wasted and reducing other
harmful pollutants – a win for public health and the economy. Achieving the
Administration’s goal would save up to 180 billion cubic feet of natural gas in
2025, enough to heat more than 2 million homes for a year and continue to
support businesses that manufacture and sell cost-effective technologies to
identify, quantify, and reduce methane emissions.
ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS TO REDUCE METHANE
EMISSIONS
Building on prior actions by the
Administration, and leadership in states and industry, today the Administration
is announcing a series of steps encompassing both commonsense standards and
cooperative engagement with states, tribes and industry to put us on a path
toward the 2025 goal. This coordinated, cross-agency effort will ensure a
harmonized approach that also considers the important role of FERC, state
utility commissions and environmental agencies, and industry. Administration
actions include:
Propose and Set Commonsense Standards
for Methane and Ozone-Forming Emissions from New and Modified Sources
In 2012, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) laid a foundation for further action when it issued standards for
volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the oil and natural gas industry.
These standards, when fully implemented, are expected to reduce 190,000 to
290,000 tons of VOC and decrease methane emissions in an amount equivalent to
33 million tons of carbon pollution per year. The standards not only relied on
technologies and practices already in widespread use in the oil and gas sector,
but also incorporated innovative regulatory flexibility. Along with a
rule to streamline permitting of oil and gas production on certain tribal
lands, this approach ensured that important public health and environmental
protections could be achieved while oil and gas production continued to grow
and expand.
Building on five technical white papers
issued last spring, the peer review and public input received on these
documents, and the actions that a number of states are already taking, EPA will
initiate a rulemaking effort to set standards for methane and VOC emissions
from new and modified oil and gas production sources, and natural gas
processing and transmission sources. EPA will issue a proposed rule in the
summer of 2015 and a final rule will follow in 2016. In developing these
standards, EPA will work with industry, states, tribes, and other stakeholders
to consider a range of common-sense approaches that can reduce emissions from
the sources discussed in the agency’s Oil and Gas White Papers, including oil
well completions, pneumatic pumps, and leaks from well sites, gathering and
boosting stations, and compressor stations. As it did in the 2012 standards,
the agency, in developing the proposal and final standards, will focus on
in-use technologies, current industry practices, emerging innovations and
streamlined and flexible regulatory approaches to ensure that emissions
reductions can be achieved as oil and gas production and operations continue to
grow.
New Guidelines to Reduce Volatile
Organic Compounds
EPA will develop new guidelines to
assist states in reducing ozone-forming pollutants from existing oil and gas
systems in areas that do not meet the ozone health standard and in states in
the Ozone Transport Region. These guidelines will also reduce methane emissions
in these areas. The guidelines will help states that are developing clean air
ozone plans by providing a ready-to-adopt control measure that they can include
in those plans.
Consider Enhancing Leak Detection and
Emissions Reporting
EPA will continue to promote
transparency and accountability for existing sources by strengthening its
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program to require reporting in all segments of the
industry. In addition to finalizing the updates to the program EPA has already
proposed by the end of 2015, EPA will explore potential regulatory
opportunities for applying remote sensing technologies and other innovations in
measurement and monitoring technology to further improve the identification and
quantification of emissions and improve the overall accuracy and transparency
of reported data cost-effectively.
Lead by Example on Public Lands
The Department of Interior’s Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) will update decades-old standards to reduce wasteful
venting, flaring, and leaks of natural gas, which is primarily methane, from
oil and gas wells. These standards, to be proposed this spring, will
address both new and existing oil and gas wells on public lands. This action
will enhance our energy security and economy by boosting America’s natural gas
supplies, ensuring that taxpayers receive the royalties due to them from
development of public resources, and reducing emissions. BLM will work closely
with EPA to ensure an integrated approach.
Reduce Methane Emissions while Improving
Pipeline Safety
The Department of Transportation’s
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will propose
natural gas pipeline safety standards in 2015. While the standards will
focus on safety, they are expected to lower methane emissions as well.
Drive Technology to Reduce Natural Gas
Losses and Improve Emissions Quantification
The President’s FY16 Budget will propose
$15 million in funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and
demonstrate more cost-effective technologies to detect and reduce losses from
natural gas transmission and distribution systems. This will include
efforts to repair leaks and develop next generation compressors. The
President’s budget will also propose $10 million to launch a program at DOE to
enhance the quantification of emissions from natural gas infrastructure for
inclusion in the national Greenhouse Gas Inventory in coordination with EPA.
Modernize Natural Gas Transmission and
Distribution Infrastructure
DOE will continue to take steps to
encourage reduced emissions, particularly from natural gas transmission and
distribution, including:
· Issuing
energy efficiency standards for natural gas and air compressors;
· Advancing
research and development to bring down the cost of detecting leaks;
· Working
with FERC to modernize natural gas infrastructure; and
· Partnering
with NARUC and local distribution companies to accelerate pipeline repair and
replacement at the local level.
Release a Quadrennial Energy Review (QER)
The Administration will soon release the
first installment of the QER, which focuses specifically on policy actions that
are needed to help modernize energy transmission, storage, and distribution
infrastructure. This installment of the QER will include additional policy
recommendations and analysis on the environmental, safety, and economic benefits
of investments that reduce natural gas system leakage.
INDUSTRY ACTIONS TO REDUCE METHANE
EMISSIONS
The Administration’s actions represent
important steps to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. Fully
attaining the Administration’s goal will require additional action,
particularly with respect to existing sources of methane emissions. Several
voluntary industry efforts to address these sources are underway, including
EPA’s plans to expand on the successful Natural Gas STAR Program by launching a
new partnership in collaboration with key stakeholders later in 2015.
EPA will work with DOE, DOT, and leading companies, individually and
through broader initiatives such as the One Future Initiative and the
Downstream Initiative, to develop and verify robust commitments to reduce
methane emissions. This new effort will encourage innovation, provide
accountability and transparency, and track progress toward specific methane
emission reduction activities and goals to reduce methane leakage across the
natural gas value chain.
Voluntary efforts to reduce emissions in
a comprehensive and transparent manner hold the potential to realize
significant reductions in a quick, flexible, cost-effective way. Achieving
significant methane reductions from these voluntary industry programs and state
actions could reduce the need for future regulations. The Administration stands
ready to collaborate with these and other voluntary efforts, including in the
development of a regime for monitoring, reporting and verification.
BUILDING ON PROGRESS
Today’s announcement builds on the
“Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions” released in March 2014. Since its
release, the Administration has taken a number of actions to set us on a course
to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and other sources:
· DOE
has launched a new initiative that will make up to $30 million available to
develop low-cost highly sensitive technologies that can help detect and measure
methane emissions from oil and gas systems. Just last month, DOE announced
the 11 innovative projects selected.
· DOE
convened a series of roundtable discussions with leaders from industry,
environmental organizations, state regulators, consumer groups, academia, labor
unions, and other stakeholders. The meetings culminated in July 2014,
with the creation of an Initiative
to Modernize Natural Gas Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure that
laid out a series of executive actions, partnerships, and stakeholder
commitments to help modernize the nation’s natural gas transmission and
distribution systems, increase safety and energy efficiency and reduce methane
emissions.
· The
US Department of Agriculture (USDA), EPA and DOE, in partnership with the dairy
industry, released a Biogas
Opportunities Roadmap in August 2014 highlighting voluntary
actions to reduce methane emissions through the use of biodigesters.
· BLM
released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in April 2014 to
gather public input on the development of a program for the capture and sale,
or disposal, of waste methane from coal mines on public lands.
·EPA
proposed updates to its 1996 New Source Performance Standards for new municipal
solid waste landfills and sought public feedback on whether EPA should update
guidelines for existing landfills in June 2014, which they anticipate
finalizing this year.
Released - THE
WHITE HOUSE- Office
of the Press Secretary 1/14/2015
May few comments:
a. Why do we have a climate action plan before a National Energy Plan? The program is energy management, waste, meeting peak demands, poor or lack of distribution, and inefficiencies. Transmissions losses need to be minimized !
b. If the peaking and distribution were addressed, it would make renewable options even more feasible.
c. Also - methane - biggest source of methane on the planet- wetlands, cows, termites, and biological degradation.
d. Agree with climate adaptation and mitigation, but we also have to be honest we have developed in the wrong areas.
e.Hope about we stop corn based ethanol.
f. No comment on the Ozone issue.
