Latest set of methane-emission rules seeks to curb waste and prevent harmful leaks on public lands

Shots with a regular camera (left) and with an infrared camera (right)
to reveal methane leaks. (Screenshots from NYT video by Jonah Kessel)

The Biden administration has delivered on its promises to crack down on methane leaks on public lands, "Washington's latest move to crack down on emissions of the potent greenhouse gas," Valerie Volcovici and Nichola Groom report for Reuters.

The proposal intends to "complement new rules the U.S. government already proposed for the industry on private land," they report. "It would place monthly limits on flaring and require oil and gas companies to undertake methane leak detection programs for operations on federal lands," which produce almost a tenth of U.S. oil and gas.

The proposed rules received some industry push-back: "The issue is not as cut and dried as this regulation would make it seem, as there are many reasons to vent and flare gas, such as safety concerns and connectivity" to pipelines said Mallori Miller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

But "There’s no reason for oil and gas companies to waste a publicly owned resource, much less a powerful greenhouse gas like methane," said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, an environmental group.

"The rules will cost oil and gas companies around $122 million per year to implement but will give them $55 million per year of recovered gas," Volcovici and Nichola Groom write, per BLM. "That gas will also boost royalty revenues paid to U.S. coffers by $39 million per year."

Methane is the main component of natural gas and tends to leak into the atmosphere from drill sites and pipelines. It is about 80 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide during a 20-year timeframe, but disappears from the atmosphere about 10 times as quickly as CO2, which lasts about 200 years.