After years of legal wrangling, the Biden administration last week announced its “final Methane Waste Rule” requiring oil and gas producers to curb gas emissions from operations on federal and tribal lands — designations that describe 70% of Wyoming’s mineral acreage.
The rule has big implications for Wyoming’s environment as well as its bedrock oil and gas industry, which mostly consists of “small producers,” according to industry officials.
The new Bureau of Land Management rule updates a suite of decades-old federal regulations and requires operators to reduce intentional venting and flaring of greenhouse gasses, prevent leaks into the atmosphere and compensate taxpayers for wasting gas that otherwise could be used by consumers.
“The rule is expected to generate more than $50 million in additional natural gas royalty payments each year to the federal taxpayer and tribal mineral owners,” according to a BLM press statement. “This conserved gas will be available to power American homes and industries.”
The BLM’s rule — a stipulation of the Inflation Reduction Act — comes just months after another Interior Department office, the Environmental Protection Agency, published its own methane rule for the oil and gas industry. The emissions reform effort is designed to coordinate with states to implement the new measures, according to the BLM, and it was crafted, in part, based on methane emissions reduction steps that Wyoming began implementing years ago, according to the agency.
But the EPA and BLM have gone too far, Gov. Mark Gordon said.
The agencies’ rules are duplicative and misaligned in many instances, he said, creating a confusing set of regulations that put both the state and its oil and gas operators at risk of noncompliance. The rules, according to Gordon, threaten to muddle Wyoming’s successful efforts to achieve the same goal of preventing methane waste.
“BLM continues to oppress the consumer by imposing ridiculous regulations in an attempt to hinder the oil and gas industry in the Biden crusade’s appeal to their environmental groups,” Gordon said in a March 28 statement.
Environmental groups hailed the Interior’s final methane waste prevention rules as a major step forward in addressing human-caused climate change, noting that reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations is not only technically feasible but economically beneficial to both industry and consumers.
“Taking action to limit methane waste on public lands offers a win-win-win for taxpayers, producers and communities harmed by this waste and associated pollution,” Environmental Defense Fund Senior Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Jon Goldstein said in a statement.
Curbing waste
Drilling and producing oil and natural gas is an inherently leaky business. Often gasses are intentionally vented to initiate production at a new well or flared — burned — to avoid inhalation and flash hazards. In fact, some 150 billion cubic feet of methane was intentionally vented or flared in 2019 alone, according to the Biden administration. That’s about $400 million worth of gas and enough to serve 2.1 million households.
Based on state data, wasted natural gas from oil and gas facilities cost Wyoming an estimated $9 million to $16 million in lost royalties in 2018, according to the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
But there are affordable and effective “best practices” to reduce the need to flare and vent, as well as detect and patch leaks, according to conservation groups and the Interior. Jonah Energy, for example, was among the first operators in Wyoming to voluntarily implement such best practices, and the company markets its natural gas as “responsibly produced.”
Wyoming, in fact, was among the first states to implement methane waste prevention measures — mostly on a voluntary basis — after a drilling boom in the Pinedale Anticline coincided with dangerous spikes in ozone south of Pinedale.
The Interior Department has noted that preventing gas emissions results in more product for operators to sell. But there are upfront investment costs, which industry officials have argued would place more stringent emission rules financially out of reach for small producers. Acknowledging initial investment costs, the Inflation Reduction Act includes $1.5 billion to help operators comply with the new rules.
“This rule represents a common sense, fair, and equitable solution to preventing waste that provides a level playing field for all of our energy-producing communities,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a statement. “The BLM worked extensively with a wide range of stakeholders to modernize our decades-old regulations and help protect communities across the country.”
Carrot and stick
Neither the BLM nor EPA have struck a fair or workable standard with their methane waste prevention rules, Gordon said. He railed against the EPA’s rule in December, stating, “A majority of Wyoming oil and gas producers are not multinational corporations.”
Gordon took aim at the EPA’s rule again in a March 25 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“The cumulative effect of the various proposed rules has an exponential effect upon the oil and gas industry in Wyoming and across the nation,” Gordon wrote. “We now have various agencies of the federal government ‘helping’ us manage our oil and gas industries. In reality that ‘help’ comes down to the federal agencies promulgating a convoluted web of rules.”
Under the EPA’s methane rule, operators would be assessed a “Waste Emissions Charge” for noncompliance. The punitive approach counters cooperative efforts that have worked for Wyoming regulators and the industry in the past, according to Gordon and the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, and the federal government’s methodologies for demonstrating compliance are problematic.
“Rather than incentivizing emissions reductions, the proposed rule would maximize fees paid under the [Waste Emissions Charge] and disincentivize accelerated emissions reductions,” the Petroleum Association said in a statement.
Wait, let me get this straight, methane capture is not workable, but carbon capture is? I am confused.
As I’ve written many times before, our planet is now experiencing an almost all-time planetary carbon low!!!! Since Wyofile’s software doesn’t allow me to simply insert a graph that illustrates this, I’m providing a link which includes an appropriate illustration: http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange2/07_1.shtml
I know this irritates a lot of Wyofile readers as one in particular previously accused me of copying and pasting “drivel,” stating I’m less intelligent than his bird dog which can make use of a newly installed pet door in a day or two! But this reader apparently can’t learn to look-up atmospheric carbon level charts over any period of time! The “Climate Crisis” crowd has been eminently successful in selling its “sky is falling” drivel. I wonder if they’ve ever considered how the planet “survived” the imagined toxic effects of millions of bison passing gas on an untrammeled Great Plains! I know, driving EV’s will save us!!!!……if you ignore the fact that the batteries they require are manufactured in country that relies upon coal-powered plants!!
Your information and beliefs are dated. You are relying on climate science beliefs that are 40+ years old. Others have challenged the information that you repeatedly post here. Instead of updating your “theories” using present day information, you discount everything that doesn’t align with manifesto. Update your beliefs in regards to current information that is available. Science has grown exponentially since the 1970’s, as has the data that is readily available.
You are not willing or capable of learning or listening to anything new. That is not how science works. But you already know that.
Good luck
Industry, particularly energy industries, cry “not fair” every time they are required to reduce waste or pollution but they almost invariably benefit economically after the fact either by savings or marketing. Venting a valuable product such as methane is down right stupid. If the oil and gas people can’t afford to deal with methane they are in the wrong business.
Yes the technology exsists to capture it. But majority of wells have no sales gas line out to main gas line. Or compression costs would exceed revenue. No then. Today the oil companies are target. Tommarow will be farmers ranchers and YOU THE RURAL home owner! What do you think your Septic tank emits? Yep METHANE GAS! Your garden compost pile what does it emit as your leaves, grass clippings emit? Yep methane!! When you fertilize your yard? How “laughing gas”. Yes it does. Now then want to hear stupidity? One can’t use this gas to generate electricity and sell it back into grid!!! Obama and idiot democrats passed federal law preventing that senecio!! That is actually most workable situation. So don’t cheer to load you fools. Higher gas bills and higher electricity rates are coming your way. Oh I know the same fools will whine then how the greedy utility companies are at fault. Smile when you pay the high “green” save the climate utility bill.
Would like to see a article on what technology exists or is under development to capture the currently flared gas and either transport it to markets or use it on site to generate electricity for on-site equipment (if that’s a thing). Seems like all we ever get is reporting on the problems with finger pointing, but little in the way of solutions.
Angry politicians aside, once you become aware that you’re doing damage of any kind, you are ethically obliged to stop doing that damage. Jonah Energy took the ethical path, and they are not the “giants” of the industry.
If anyone has a recipe for preparing a meal of fresh Crow , send it to the chef at the Governor’s Mansion. Mark and his ilk of fossil fuel advocates are going to be eating a lot of Crow in the near future.
The reason ? – the amount of waste methane finding its way into the skies of Wyoming has been grossly underestimated , maybe by a factor of 10. I’d bet the ranch on that.
Here’s how y’all all learn what I state here. Wyoming’s contribution of methane to the greenhouse gas mix will be revealed in full , soon . Earth orbiting satellites such as the powerful new MethaneSat with its high resolution sensors, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel and TROPOMI satellites, the GHG-1 C greenhouse gas monitoring sat, and others will be mapping in fine detail the sources and dsitribution of methane worldwide. They will do it at a scale so refined they can detect methane from a single well or compressor station. The sensors work day and night and can see well through all but the thickest clouds in allw eather . The data will be available in nearly real time from MethaneSat , which was funded largely by the Jeff Bezos Fund grant to the Environmental Defense Fund , among others such as the TED Project with other foundations , and the government of New Zealand. It was launched a month ago today by SpaceX and is currently being calibrated in orbit. The United Nations has started a program called MARS – short for Methane Alert and Response System to gather data from all the various methane detecting satellites and open source the findings in very short order. Recall for discussion purposes that methane as a greenhouse gas retains 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide.
The Bottom Line: the oil & gas industry will no longer be able to hide their wasted gas and methane leaks. Wyoming’s thousands of orphaned gas wells and the swarm of defunct coal bed methane operations from the boom-bust of the 1990’s will all be standing naked. Thus the vast amount of Wyoming methane being added to the atmosphere will no longer be shielded by corporate press relations offices, the duplicitous gas field operators , the leasees , the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission , American Petroleum Institute, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming , and all the other lobbyists who have been less than truthful about errant methane. The days of denying methane are coming to a close. Nor will the Governor and Legislature be able to fudge the fossil fuel discourse or deflect the size of the problem with wild methane as they have for generations. Guv Gordo, you are about to be schooled …
The real problem with Wyoming’s response to being an enabler of wasted methane and generally a huge contributor to the negative side of the equations on greenhouse gases and Climate Change is the same old same old. Our Governor and his fossil fuel ilk narrow their vision to see only the money component. They are so concerned about the dollars and jobs they neglect the many other negative consequences of fossil fuels. Wyoming is supremely selfish in trying to constrain the debates to just self-interest economics. It is also antagonistic towards any science that cuts across the weave of its blue collar coveralls. The omnipotent 2D Stockgrowers will hang onto their traditional disclaimer a little while longer… the jury will be out on open pasture cow farts for the forseeable. But not those feedlots.
Everything about Methane is about to change. None of you reading this should be shocked when some months from now it is announced that Wyoming’s contribution of wild methane as a debilitating greenhouse gas is ten times as much as previous acknowledge by our leadership. A satellite told me that.
Who’s got that recipe for preparing stuffed roast Crow ?
And the cool part about this article is that Dr. Field pictured above now works for the UN/EDF and is a part of the team for the MethaneSat and MARS. They have a big conference in Beijing about this issue in a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see what data that satellite produces.
You can’t shut down natural ponds and lakes with methane in them! There’s natural pockets under the ponds and lakes if you dig or blast anywhere near the ponds and lakes you can and will cause methane to leak out!
It is totally irresponsible to vent methane. If businesses aren’t able to operate responsibly, they should not be in business. Coal bed fracking released an unbelievable amount of methane into the atmosphere. In the Atlantic Rim area, riparian areas were like Yellowstone mud pots. It was unreal. When sniffer technology checked out the area, even more methane was being released throughout the fractured geology of the area.
I read in High Country News that the fracking in the 4 corners area also wasted product and polluted. There is no responsible justification for doing that.
*** WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI ***
Brothers, Sisters my neighbors really what’s next? Of course flatulence tax? At the very least because the beef industry at the stock yards and where ever beef is there is going to be flatulence produced. What about our sewer facilities at the settling ponds? Of course we can not ignore the real target(s) of this you and I “We the people” are we going to see a rule in summation form that because: An average human being produces X am of flatulence/methane per year multiplied by the population per State that State will be levied a flatulence.
TAX/FINE/ETC.?
This precedence is going to or attempting to “sanitize” this Nation into oblivion utilizing our Liberty against ourselves and humanity BECAUSE there is no one single person/man/woman to have “rulership” over the people to decree what are the limits because the alphabet department(s) set “RULES” the first part of “RULErship”.
The invading “government” that is attempting to overthrow these United States of America in this “SOFT WAR” is attempting to set PRECEDENCES to create LAW that overRULES common sense and human logic… The invading government has to be in our faces and in PLAIN SIGHT to enable it to maneuver as well and openly, to have the courage and audacity to perform in such a way in our lives knowing that as a Constitutional Republic that “We the people” entrust our Law Makers to utilize “human common sense of humanity” to create laws with Honor and respect for “We the people” as perfectly outlined in the Preamble of the Constitution.
Brothers and Sisters can you IMAGINE legislating every possibilities of everyday life by having voted by the people for the people?! This could go on and on until a RULER OF RULERSHIP would declare otherwise because the RULER/KING would DECREE what is LAW under his or her RULERSHIP as RULER/KING within their KINGDOM(S)… SEMPER FI!
““BLM continues to oppress the consumer by imposing ridiculous regulations in an attempt to hinder the oil and gas industry in the Biden crusade’s appeal to their environmental groups,” Gordon said in a March 28 statement.”
Saving our planet and our communities is real. Our children expect more from our leaders. No more policies based on how much money our policy makers receive from the carbon industry.
Natural gas is too precious a resource to be lost in the process of oil production. Some flaring should be premissible, but for well testing only. Air quality is just a important a resource as petroleum and enterprises, not matter how small or large, should not regard its degradation as an unavoidable by-product of their operations.