WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 29 proposed revoking Obama-era regulations on climate-changing methane leaks from oil facilities.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the proposed rule followed President Donald Trump’s directions to remove “unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry.”
The step would be the latest in a series easing the previous administration’s emissions controls on the oil, gas and coal industries, including a 2016 rule regulating oil-industry methane leaks as a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.
Methane is a component of natural gas that’s frequently wasted through leaks or intentional releases during drilling operations. It is considered to be a potent greenhouse gas.
Under President Trump, both the Interior Department and the EPA have proposed a series of rules to loosen regulations of methane emissions.
“While some states have taken different approaches on methane, a uniform, national regulatory standard is necessary,” said Tyson Slocum from the progressive consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen.
“That’s why the Obama-era rule was so vital.”
The oil industry has said that the immediate direct effect on methane emissions would be negligible. Controls on other regulated pollutants would also capture methane in the pipeline, said Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute.
The Obama-era methane limits imposed “a disproportionate effect on small businesses” in the oil industry, Milito said. “A lot of mom and pops would have their wells shut-in, elderly people with wells on their properties that could be shut down.”