The EPA is set to release draft rules for methane emissions from existing oil and gas wells in April, agency administrator Gina McCarthy said today. Via the Wall Street Journal, the EPA will require companies to provide information on equipment, emissions and control technologies from production, transmission, processing and storage. The agency proposed rules for cutting methane emissions from new oil and gas wells last August.
The latest proposal announcement coincided with a joint commitment by the U.S. and Canada to cut methane emissions by 40-45% below 2012 levels by 2025 — a target the Obama Administration previously set in January 2015.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) accused the administration of “catering to environmental extremists” at American consumers’ expense with the new rules. The API has long argued that new methane rules are duplicative given the industry’s efforts to reduce emissions in recent years
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