November 12-18, 2022
This Week in Review
EPA has issued a supplemental proposal for regulating methane and VOC emissions from the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas sector is the largest emitter in the U.S. of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas (GHG). EPA’s November 10, 2022 action updates and expands new source performance standards for facilities in the oil and gas sector under Section 111(b) of the Clean Air Act, and the emission guidelines and presumptive standards for existing facilities under Section 111(d), that were published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2021 (please see related story in the October 30 – November 5, 2021 edition of the Washington Update). The November 2021 proposal included three separate actions under the Clean Air Act that targeted new and existing air emission sources at oil and natural gas well sites, natural gas gathering and boosting compressor stations, natural gas processing plants, and transmission and storage facilities. In its January 28, 2022 comments, NACAA supported the proposed rule, which would result in significant emission reductions from ozone precursors, air toxics and GHGs, and which would create urgently needed public health and environmental benefits (please see related story in the January 22-28, 2022 edition of the Washington Update). The Agency says it subsequently received 470,000 comments with new information that is reflected in the proposed supplemental rulemaking. In its November 2021 rule, EPA did not publish proposed rule text or post technical support documents or regulatory impact analyses, and the November 10, 2022 proposed supplemental rulemaking provides these. The supplemental rulemaking takes two distinct rulemaking actions, for new sources and for existing sources. The proposal would apply to any new facilities constructed, modified, or reconstructed after November 15, 2021; the emission guidelines proposed are for facilities in operation prior to that date. The proposal adds new facility standards for sources that were not addressed in the 2021 proposal, revises requirements for fugitive emissions monitoring, and establishes a “super emitter” response program requiring mitigation of super-emitter emissions events when they are identified by regulatory authorities or third-party sources. It encourages “innovative and cost-effective” detection technologies like mobile, drone, and satellite sensing, and streamlines their approval process. Low-producing and marginal wells are included in the monitoring and compliance requirements until they are closed and plugged. Provisions allow for flaring if a matrix of alternative technologies are considered first. The proposal also includes a new zero-emissions standard for pneumatic controllers and pumps and new standards for dry seal compressors. The proposal gives agencies 18 months to submit plans to EPA for existing sources, with 36 month compliance deadlines after that. EPA’s proposal is to use FIPs for states that do not submit plans. EPA said in November 2021 that its proposed rule would result in significant emission reductions from ozone precursors, air toxics and GHGs, including a 74 percent reduction in methane by 2035. The November 2022 supplemental rulemaking proposal adds some changes and additional provisions that EPA says will increase that reduction to 87 percent reduction below 2005 levels for the sector, but because EPA analysis shows the sector emits less methane than was originally modeled, the supplemental proposal would save 36 million tons instead of the original 41 million metric tons. EPA’s cost benefit analysis uses the Administration’s interim social cost of methane metric, which has been unsuccessfully challenged in court. EPA also ran a separate cost benefit analysis using a different metric based on recommendations made in 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The supplemental will also be affected by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”), which expressly exempts sources from the IRA’s methane emissions fee if the EPA’s methane rulemaking will result in “equivalent or greater emission reductions.” The supplemental proposal will be open for public comment through Feb. 13, with virtual public hearings on Jan. 10 and 11. The methane rule is expected to be finalized later in 2023.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-11/SAN%208510_OilandGasClimate_Preamble_Supplemental_20221107_AI.pdf and https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/NACAA-Oil-and-Gas-NSPS-Comment-Letter-01_28_2022.pdf and https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-11/san-8510-ong-climate-review-proposal-frn-2021-11_1.pdf
EPA announced the adoption of its final aircraft particular matter (PM) rule. With this final rule, EPA aligns U.S. PM emission standards and test procedures with those adopted in 2017 and 2019 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); the final standards will take effect January 1, 2023. The final standards apply to new type design and in-production civil aircraft engines with rated output of greater than 26.7 kilonewtons. These engines are typically used in commercial passenger and freight aircraft and larger business jets. Since virtually all affected aircraft already meet the standards, the final rule will not result in any improvement in public health or environmental protection. In NACAA’s April 1, 2022, comments on EPA’s February 3, 2022, proposed rule the association urged, among other things, that EPA go beyond adoption of ICAO’s technology-following standards, which fall far short of what is necessary and feasible.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/final-rule-control-air-pollution-aircraft-engines and https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/NACAA_Comments-EPA_Aircraft_PM_NPRM-040122lh.pdf
Delegates to the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will extend their meetings in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, into the weekend, past the set date for concluding the conference, in order to try to find agreement on unresolved issues on their agenda. On November 18, 2022, the UNFCCC released a 20 page draft paper identifying key areas of negotiation, pending agreement – much larger than the 6 page paper released during the COP26 conference in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. The draft paper identifies areas ranging from food policy to the intersection of climate and human rights, as well as identifying a goal of articulating how much and how rapidly fossil fuels will be limited by the agreement, and reiterating the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2°C, while aiming for 1.5°C. On November 17, 2022, the 27-country European Union (EU) said it would back one of the most controversial agenda items – a “loss and damage” fund called for by the “G77” group of 134 developing countries to finance recovery from climate change-caused disasters. However, the G77 bloc has not yet indicated whether it will accept the EU’s offer of a fund to aid only “the most vulnerable countries”, rather than all developing countries. The EU also said it would only back the fund if countries agreed to phase down all fossil fuels, rather than only unabated coal-fired power generation. The U.S. and China – the world’s two biggest economies and two biggest GHG emitters – have yet to respond to the offer by the EU or commit to language for the phase-down provisions. Any final deals at COP27 must be made with support from all of the 197 countries present.
For further information: https://cop23.unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Presidency%20non-paper2%20on%20cover%20decisions.pdf