Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — US President Joe Biden's administration will toughen a proposed crackdown on methane emissions by the US oil and gas industry, by requiring drillers to fix all leaks, not just the biggest, and through new rules on flaring, it said on Friday.
The oil and gas industry is a big source of methane because the invisible gas tends to leak into the atmosphere undetected from drill sites, gas pipelines and other equipment. It would also force methane emissions reductions from flaring equipment and create a system to detect the leaks from “super-emitter” sites quickly so operators can repair them faster and local community residents are aware, the EPA said.The extension of the rules defies lobbying from the US oil and gas industry that urged the EPA to exclude the nation’s hundreds of thousands of low-producing wells on the grounds that frequent monitoring would be inefficient and costly.
In a concession to the industry, the EPA said it would provide oil and gas companies some flexibility around the kinds of technology they can use to monitor their sites for leaks.