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Senator Joe Manchin has sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan outlining serious concerns with a proposed rule to increase methane regulations on oil and gas facilities, as well as proposed changes to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).
Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote in the letter, “The current Administration has made its intentions clear: it is determined to target our flourishing oil and gas sector, despite its substantial progress in reducing methane emissions, irrespective of how it might impact American energy security, reliability, and consumer cost. This has put pressure on EPA to hastily finalize and implement these extensive new regulations, leading to proposals that lack thorough consideration and alignment”.
“This lack of alignment unjustly burdens industry while simultaneously hindering EPA’s ability to achieve its own stated emissions reduction objectives”, Manchin continued in the letter. “Because EPA is so singularly focused on its anti-fossil agenda, it has missed an opportunity to craft calibrated proposals that achieve emissions reductions while ensuring that the domestic oil and natural gas industry can continue to provide affordable and dependable energy to meet global market demands. While the federal government has a role in responsibly regulating methane emissions, a failure to harmonize these rules before they are finalized will have severe consequences for the nation and our strategic partners, putting our energy and national security at risk”.
Manchin noted that the proposed methane rule has a “completely unrealistic compliance timeframe” for companies to upgrade critical field equipment to effectively address leaks from new wells, storage tanks, and essential equipment. If finalized in its current form, the rule would give businesses a 60-day window to upgrade various devices, such as widely used pneumatic controllers responsible for regulating temperature, pressure, and liquid levels, he wrote, adding that “this timeline is grossly inadequate and fails to acknowledge the extensive scale of the required upgrades”.
Manchin further noted that ongoing supply chain disruptions in the oil and gas industry, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have caused delays that span from six to 24 months, “presenting insurmountable obstacles to meeting EPA’s proposed regulation”. The combined rules would impact 500,000 oil and gas wells, which includes central processing facilities and tank batteries, over 12,000 gathering and boosting stations, 700 natural gas processing plants, and 3,500 transmission and storage compressor stations, the senator added, citing the EPA’s estimates.
Meanwhile, Manchin noted in the letter “the EPA’s inability to reconcile the changes proposed to Subpart W of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) with Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) requirements”.
“While the IRA provides clear directives to enhance accurate emissions assessment for the Methane Waste Emissions Charge (Methane Fee) and offer facility owners the choice of submitting firsthand, observed emissions data, EPA’s proposed revisions impose notable constraints on the utilization of advanced emissions measurement methods by facility owners”, Manchin wrote, adding that the EPA’s proposal lacks flexibility and introduces resource-intensive demands.
“Prior to publication, EPA should strive for compatibility and uniformity among the Methane Rule, Subpart W reporting changes, and Methane Fee implementation, avoiding overly stringent restrictions that might impede the adoption of innovative technologies, such as mandating the use of Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) cameras to verify leak repairs, and instead opt for regulatory flexibility and technological impartiality”, the letter continued.
Machin wrapped up the letter with his concern about the “EPA’s definition of a ‘facility’ within the context of oil and natural gas operations when it comes to application of the Methane Fee”. The senator wrote, “As it stands, the current definition could mistakenly encompass entire basins as singular facilities if left unaltered. This poses an issue because operators in a given basin often oversee numerous discrete well sites, some of which may or may not be connected by production pipelines. It is inappropriate to categorize these as a single facility”.
Manchin recommended that the EPA take a “more granular approach”, such as recognizing each individual well pad site as a distinct entity, which would “align with the objectives of the IRA, primarily by focusing operators’ methane control efforts on well pad sites with substantial emissions”.
Rigzone has asked the EPA for comments regarding the Manchin letter, and the agency has not yet responded at the time of writing.
Earlier, Manchin also called on the Biden administration to swiftly auction drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, following a federal appeals court ruling Thursday that casts doubt on the future of that oil lease sale. “Shrinking or further delaying Lease Sale 261 threatens both our energy security and climate goals and could make us more dependent on dirty foreign oil and gas,” the senator said in an earlier report.
To contact the author, email rocky.teodoro@rigzone.com
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