EPA To Roll Back Methane Monitoring For Natural Gas Pipelines, Report Says

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue announce rollbacks to existing methane gas emissions originally adopted under the Obama administration in 2016.

Sources in the EPA told the Wall Street Journal on Monday one of the targets of these changes is systems meant to identify potential leaks in methane pipelines. Essentially, companies will no longer be required to implement systems and processes to find those leaks should one occur. The EPA will also ease oversight and reporting requirements currently required on most methane pipelines.

Monitoring requirements for non-methane pollutants will remain in place.

The changes are rooted in proposals from 2018 and 2019 to aid small and mid-size companies that said the Obama-era regulations were too costly and made drilling for natural gas unprofitable. However, larger companies like Exxon-Mobil and BP said deregulation undermines promises natural gas is a clean and safe source of energy.

The regulations were originally implemented as concerns mounted over methane leaks and its ongoing effects on global warming. EPA estimates previously said methane accounts for 10% of greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and is 25 times more potent at trapping the earth’s heat than carbon dioxide.

Despite these concerns, the EPA has largely sided with small and mid-size energy companies on methane rollback. It argued the Obama administration did not go through the necessary scientific and legal processes to determine the impact the gas and oil industries have on greenhouse gas emissions from methane and other potential pollutants.

One EPA official, whose name has not been released, said the changes were awaiting the White House’s approval after what was described as tense negotiations. The official said the White House wanted to reduce inspections from twice-a-year to once-a-year, but the EPA said this sort of change would have been difficult to justify publicly. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler also said rolling back inspections further could have delayed the rest of the changes until well past the November elections.

Wheeler is expected to sign the new rules on Thursday in Pittsburgh, near one of the biggest natural gas fields in the U.S., Marcellus Shale.