Trump Administration More likely to Repeal Methane Leak Penalty

Methane Leaks Are In all places. The Trump Administration Could Repeal Penalty Meant to Cut back Them

By Jean Chemnick & E&E Information

CLIMATEWIRE | EPA finalized rules Tuesday for a charge that oil and gasoline firms may start paying on extra methane emissions subsequent yr — if Republicans don’t repeal it first.

The rule guides implementation of a levy created by the 2022 local weather regulation and is the final vital local weather commonplace of the Biden administration. It was unveiled at an occasion on the sidelines of this yr’s U.N. local weather convention in Baku, Azerbaijan, shortly earlier than a U.S.-China methane summit.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who didn’t attend the worldwide assembly, mentioned in an announcement that the rule is “the latest in a series of actions under President Biden’s methane strategy to improve efficiency in the oil and gas sector, support American jobs, protect clean air, and reinforce U.S. leadership on the global stage.”

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EPA estimated that the levy would preserve 1.2 million metric tons of methane out of the environment by 2035 and ship “up to $2 billion” in local weather advantages.

Firms will start paying the levy subsequent yr for extra emissions launched in 2024. Oil and gasoline operators pays $900 for every metric ton of methane that is above a threshold enshrined within the Inflation Discount Act. The charge, referred to as the waste emissions cost, will climb to $1,500 a ton for 2026 and past. The levy reinforces EPA’s Clear Air Act guidelines for methane by guaranteeing that if operators aren’t coated by these requirements — or don’t adjust to them — they might pay the charge.

However President-elect Donald Trump’s victory final week throws doubt on the way forward for President Joe Biden’s methane insurance policies — notably the methane charge. Trump may direct former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican whom Trump introduced as his future EPA administrator Monday, to pare again components of these insurance policies or scrap them. Zeldin faces Senate affirmation.

The Biden EPA has rolled out vital methane guidelines at every of the final three U.N. local weather summits. The administration has additionally constructed its local weather diplomacy round the necessity to curb methane — a superpollutant that is 80 instances extra highly effective than carbon dioxide at elevating temperatures over a 20-year time horizon.

The U.S. joined the European Union in 2021 to launch the International Methane Pledge, which has resulted in additional than 150 nations promising to work collectively to cut back world methane no less than 30 p.c by 2030. The U.S. summit with China on Tuesday marks the second time the most important two polluters are assembly to curb the potent gasoline.

However below Trump, EPA may shortly start the method of pulling again and changing Biden-era methane guidelines with laxer requirements — together with those who drive implementation of the methane charge. As a result of the rule is being finalized so late in Biden’s time period, Republican lawmakers may invalidate it by a Congressional Evaluate Act decision.

However consultants say these strikes wouldn’t absolve Trump’s EPA from having to implement the charge.

“The law is still the law,” mentioned one {industry} advocate who was granted anonymity to speak about future insurance policies.

A CRA decision would permit the Trump administration to craft a extra industry-friendly methane charge. It may, as an example, make it simpler for oil and gasoline operators to assert charge exemptions supplied below the Inflation Discount Act. Trump may additionally let operators delay paying the charge till their annual greenhouse gasoline studies are finalized late within the yr. The Trump EPA may additionally permit firms to web emissions throughout all property, eradicating restrictions on how cleaner amenities might compensate for dirtier ones to mitigate charges.

If Trump and congressional Republicans want to kill the methane charge, they must enact laws to repeal it. Democrats and Biden moved the IRA by the annual finances course of, and the GOP may doubtlessly use the identical maneuver to undo components of it. Commerce teams just like the American Petroleum Institute and Unbiased Petroleum Affiliation of America oppose the charge.

Rosalie Winn, an lawyer with the Environmental Protection Fund, mentioned laws to scrap the charge “would be directly contrary to the interests of the American people.”

“We know that reducing methane pollution is the single most important and lowest-cost way to lower the warming that we are experiencing today and to protect the communities across America that are already being affected by extreme weather events and rapidly increasing insurance costs,” she mentioned, noting that the methane charge is a income raiser and its repeal would add to the federal deficit.

Though the charge is unpopular with {industry}, not all of Biden’s different methane insurance policies are.

EPA is on monitor to launch lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} from the IRA within the coming weeks to assist operators slash emissions. Many oil and gasoline {industry} advocates worry that jettisoning EPA guidelines for leak prevention and monitoring may go away U.S. firms weak to worldwide and state methane insurance policies. Additionally they word that many operators have their very own local weather commitments which might be roughly in step with EPA’s methane rule.

This story additionally seems in Energywire.

Reprinted from E&E Information with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E Information supplies important information for power and atmosphere professionals.