EPA methane emission controls, Obama vs Trump vs Biden: what needs to be fixed and what should be left alone
Date
2021-05-04
DOI
Authors
Kleinberg, Robert L.
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
On 13 August 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated its final rule
amending the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the Oil and Natural Gas Sector. Both
adherents and detractors of President Donald J. Trump saw the new rule as contributing to the
President’s deregulatory agenda, taking an important step toward American dominance in fossil
fuels (desirable or not), and winning yet another battle in the war on the environmental
protection legacy of President Barack Obama. This simple story line is compelling, but when the
details are examined, it is found that the changes were in some ways more important, and in other
ways less important than advertised by supporters and opponents. Moreover, some of the
changes have damaged positions Trump championed, while others have the potential to
substantially improve the environmental performance of the oil and gas industry. Most
importantly, some major sources of methane emissions have been inadequately dealt with across
both administrations. Therefore the Biden administration EPA, in re-examining NSPS, should take
care to discard the mistakes made by the Trump administration, retain the improvements, and
move forward on a number of new fronts. Topics explored include redundancy of methane and
volatile organic compound leak detection, regulation of older and low production facilities,
abandoned wells, pneumatic controllers, oil storage tanks, routine flaring, malfunctioning and
unlit flares, gathering pipelines, and EPA certification of new methane emission detection
technology.
All results and any errors in this report are the responsibility of the author.
Description
License
© Copyright 2021 Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy.