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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 30 august 2019
EPA moves to revoke rules on oil industry methane leaks

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and stop methane leaks at oil
CATHY BUSSEWITZ and gas sites. The Trump
Associated Press administration contends
WASHINGTON (AP) — that Obama's EPA skipped
The Trump administration required legal steps in mak-
moved Thursday to revoke ing that decision, and its
regulations on methane proposal Thursday seeks
leaks from oil facilities, a public comment on the is-
proposal environmental sue.
advocates said would re- "Essentially, this is the ump-
nounce key federal author- teenth iteration of the EPA's
ity to regulate the climate- exercise to define away its
damaging gas. Clean Air Act authority ...
The proposed rule follows to address air pollution and
President Donald Trump's greenhouse gases," said
directions to remove "un- Joseph Goffman, an EPA
necessary and duplicative air official under Obama.
regulatory burdens from Methane levels globally
the oil and gas industry," have risen to historic highs,
Environmental Protection and the oil industry's U.S.
Agency Administrator An- shale gas boom has been
drew Wheeler said in a the single largest driver of
statement. that, said Robert Howarth,
Exxon Mobil and some oth- a professor of ecology at
er oil giants — wary of blow- Cornell University.
back from growing public "The increase in methane
concern over global warm- In this April 24, 2015, file photo, pumpjacks work in a field near Lovington, N.M. Oil industry and has contributed significant-
environmental groups say they expect the Environmental Protection Agency to release a pro-
ing — joined environmental posed rule over the next few days that will roll back requirements on detecting and plugging ly to the accelerated glob-
groups in urging the Trump methane leaks at oil and gas facilities. al warming and climate
administration to drop Associated Press disruption the Earth has ex-
the rollback on methane perienced in recent years,"
controls, although several forts to cut climate-chang- Trump has pushed to open missing calls from scientists Howarth said in an email.
state-level and national in- ing emissions from the oil, vast expanses of U.S. wil- in and out of government While environmental
dustry groups welcomed gas and coal industries, derness and coastline to for rapid cuts in oil, gas groups pointed to the long-
the easing. including a 2016 rule regu- oil and gas drilling, speed and coal emissions to stave term regulatory impact on
The step would be the lat- lating oil-industry methane construction of petroleum off the worst of climate methane overall, the oil
est in a series unwinding the leaks as a pollutant under pipelines and ease regu- change. industry said the direct im-
Obama administration's ef- the federal Clean Air Act. lations on the industry, dis- Asked about global warm- mediate effect for meth-
ing this week, Trump only ane emissions would be
lauded the United States' negligible.
"tremendous wealth." ''The Controls on other, regu-
wealth is under its feet," he lated pollutants would also
said, praising oil and gas capture methane before
production. it leaks from pipelines, said
Methane, the main com- Erik Milito of the American
ponent of natural gas, fre- Petroleum Institute.
quently leaks or is intention- The Obama-era require-
ally released during drilling ments to find and fix meth-
operations. It traps far more ane leaks imposed "a dis-
heat in the atmosphere proportionate effect on
than carbon dioxide, doing small businesses" in the oil
25 times the damage over industry, Milito said. "A lot
the long term despite sur- of mom and pops would
viving for less time, accord- have their wells shut in, el-
ing to the EPA. derly people with wells on
The oil and gas industry is their properties that could
the nation's primary source be shut down" under the
of methane emissions, ac- rules to be rescinded.
cording to the EPA, ac- But the rollbacks on emis-
counting for nearly one- sions from oilfields, storage
third in 2016. sites and pipelines have
Under Trump, both the In- split the oil industry, wor-
terior Department and the rying some in the industry
EPA have proposed a series about growing blowback
of rules — some blocked by in a world increasingly
courts — to loosen regula- mindful of climate change.
tion of methane emissions. Some oil majors this year
President Barack Obama's urged the administration
administration had cited to crack down — not ease
legal authority under the up — on the emissions.
Clean Air Act to require They repeated that request
companies to detect and Thursday.q