EPA plans new regs to cut VOCs, methane from oil, gas drilling

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning the development of new regulations and the promotion of new technologies aimed at reducing the emission of methane and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from the oil and gas industry, the agency said Jan. 14.

The announcement comes in conjunction with a series of regulatory programs that EPA has initiated to further the Obama administration’s strategy of tackling the emission of greenhouse gases in the United States. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. VOCs can form smog and cause health problems.

The agency plans to publish a proposed rule in the late summer of 2015 and a final rule in 2016.

Although methane emissions from the oil and gas industry have declined 16 percent since 1990, these emissions are projected to increase by 25 percent in the next decade, in the absence of further steps to address emissions controls, EPA said. The agency said that it anticipates the use of a combination of regulation and voluntary actions to achieve the necessary emissions decrease.

To address the issue of VOC emissions, EPA anticipates building on performance standards for the oil and natural gas industry issued in 2012 to address both methane and VOC emissions. Using a similar approach to that adopted for those standards, the agency will rely on proven technologies for emissions control, and will talk to industry, states and tribes as part of its evaluation of appropriate emissions control techniques, EPA said. Target processes and equipment for improved emissions control may include the completions of hydraulically fractured oil wells; pneumatic pumps; and leaks from well sites and compressor stations.

EPA said that it plans to engage with states on approaches to setting the emissions standards, to ensure that the standards effectively protect public health and the environment while also supporting continued growth in the oil and gas industry. In fact, states themselves have the authority to regulate air emissions, provided that state regulations are no weaker than federal rules, EPA said.

In addition to developing regulations, EPA will expand its efforts to promote the voluntary adoption by the oil and gas industry of emission control technologies, EPA said. The agency also said that it plans to issue guidelines for controlling VOC emissions from existing oil and gas sources in areas where VOC control is particularly needed. States would have to address emissions control from these sources but would have some flexibility in how to apply the guidelines.

Other actions under way to address methane emissions include an expansion of the existing EPA Natural Gas STAR Program that encourages voluntary emissions reductions, and the continuation of some other initiatives targeting commitments to emissions curtailment.

- ALAN BAILEY