Alex Mills
By Alex Mills
The Obama administration announced on Jan. 13 that it will issue new regulations on the oil and gas industry designed to significantly reduce methane emissions. It is another attempt to put another nail in the coffin of fossil fuels.
Since the first day President Obama took office, he has urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, the Bureau of Land Management and nine other federal bureaucracies that have some regulatory authority over the oil and gas industry to make it tougher to operate within the borders of the United States.
EPA has been the most active. It has enacted regulations that restrict air emissions from crude oil, natural gas facilities and electric utilities.
Even though EPA did not make the actual language of the new methane regulations public (that is scheduled for the summer of 2015), it did warn that the new rule will be tough as it has a goal to reduce methane emissions by 40 to 45 percent of 2012 levels by 2025.
All sectors of the natural gas industry will be part of the rulemaking from the wellhead to the burner tip.
Ironically, many economist credit the dramatic increase in crude oil and natural gas production from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling as the bright spot in the U.S. economy during the last five years. The increase in production has created an oversupply of oil and natural gas and has created a softening of price. As energy costs dropped, the U.S. economy picked up steam.
Environmental groups have pushed for more regulations in hopes that it would increase the cost of oil and gas production and, therefore, making wind and solar energy more competitive.
The new regulations will increase the cost of drilling and producing oil and gas.
EPA acknowledged in its news release on Jan. 14 that “emissions from the oil and gas sector are down 16 percent since 1990 and current data show significant reductions from certain parts of the sector, notably well completions.”
Some policymakers believe this is another attempt by the Obama administration to stretch federal controls of the oil and gas industry into areas historically left to the states to regulate. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regulates air emissions by the energy industry.
The EPA news release tried to soften the increase in bureaucratic reach by stating it has a “cooperative engagement with states.”
EPA also claimed that these new regulations are “cost-effective, commonsense requirements.”
When was the last time a federal bureaucracy issued cost-effective, commonsense regulations?
Alex Mills is President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The opinions expressed are solely of the author
Speak Your Mind