This week, the EPA wrapped up the public comment period for its draft Information Collection Request (ICR). This ICR is an opportunity for the EPA to collect information about methane pollution from existing oil and gas operations and infrastructure. The EPA is collecting this information in order to develop methane standards for existing oil and gas sources. The finalization of this ICR is a critical step towards reducing dangerous methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The oil and gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the U.S., responsible for leaking and intentionally venting tons of this dangerous pollutant every day. In 2014, the oil and gas industry emitted over 9.8 million metric tons of methane, a number 34% higher than previous estimates and equivalent to the pollution caused by more than 200 coal-fired power plants over 20 years. The amount of methane emissions from this sector is expected to increase 25 percent in the next 10 years without robust federal standards.
In addition, smog- and soot-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants, such as benzene and xylene, are released in significant quantities during oil and gas development along with methane. These toxins can cause cancer, respiratory symptoms, anemia, brain damage, birth defects, eye irritation, and blood and neurological disorders. Communities across the country are denied the right to breathe clean, safe air, and instead are forced to bear the brunt of this dangerous air pollution.
The EPA is taking critical steps to address this issue—through its recently-finalized New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for methane emissions, its forthcoming Control Techniques Guidelines (CTGs) for limiting air pollution with a focus on ozone, and its Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule to minimize flaring and waste. However, the national actions proposed or announced to date will still leave methane pollution from the vast majority (at least 75%) of the wells and oil and gas infrastructure in use today virtually unregulated. Relief cannot come soon enough, which is why, thankfully, the EPA is working to address this threat through comprehensive protections to minimize methane emissions from existing sources.
When finalized, the EPA’s ICR will round out the already-robust technical foundation that the administration has on the emission sources and mitigation options available to the oil and gas industry. This will help ensure that a rulemaking addressing existing sources is comprehensive and protective. This ICR must lead to strong safeguards in order to protect communities from toxic methane emissions and meet the goal of reducing this harmful climate pollution by 40-45% below 2012 levels by 2025.
Sadly, the NSPS is under attack from 14 states’ attorneys general. Rather than defend their citizens right to breathe clean air, these attorneys generals have sided with corporate polluters to block safeguards that would help curb methane pollution. The Sierra Club is confident that the New Source rule will be upheld, and this is but a hiccup in the oil and gas industry’s continued attempt to put profits above people.
While the only way to completely rid ourselves of these harmful pollutants and prevent further climate disruption is to leave dirty fuels in the ground, these efforts from the EPA will go a long way to protect frontline communities from the hazards of oil and gas development and help curb further climate change.
A total of 60 environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, came together in submitting a letter to the EPA in support of this ICR. We urged that EPA strengthen this process in several critical ways, including moving swiftly to gather a robust data set through the ICR, ensuring that information is captured from all sources across the oil and gas supply chain, and collecting specific information on the potential for individual VOCs and other toxic air pollutant emissions. These guidelines will help ensure that accurate and comprehensive data is collected through the ICR, allowing the EPA to move quickly in creating strong, effective standards for existing oil and gas sources of methane emissions.