Flush with cash, EPA could toughen methane rules
Great: EPA is getting an extra $40 billion over 10 years. Almost doubling their $4.9 billion to $8.90 billion. 76,000 more EPA employees?
By Jean Chemnick | 10/07/2022 06:42 AM EDT
In this photo made with an Optical Gas Imaging thermal camera, a plume of heat from a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons is detected in the background next to an oil pumpjack as a cow walks through a field in the Permian Basin in Jal, N.M., last year. AP Photo/David Goldman
Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, EPA is slated to receive a windfall of more than $40 billion over the next 10 years. Americans could get a hint next week whether the extra money is going to translate into tougher regulations for air quality and climate change.
That’s when the agency is expected to release two proposals designed to clamp down on methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The draft rules, which would be final next year, would force oil and gas companies to reduce methane leaks from their operations.
The twin proposals would mark EPA’s first major regulatory action on climate since August, when President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act. The measure includes nearly $370 billion in climate and renewable energy provisions, and would direct $41.5 billion to EPA over 10 years — overwhelmingly benefiting new and existing programs on climate and air quality is a huge bump for the agency — EPA’s annual budget usually hovers around $9 billion — and the money could help EPA justify tougher regulations because it would allow the agency to balance higher compliance costs with federal assistance to industry (Climatewire, Aug. 8).
EPA already has signaled the spending law might impact its regulatory work, though it remains to be seen how that would play out. Reuters first reported last month that EPA plans to review its March proposal for heavy-duty truck emissions to determine if Inflation Reduction Act incentives for zero-emissions vehicles warrant stronger standards for model years 2027 to 2029.
Agency officials have hinted at changes, too. EPA acting air chief Joseph Goffman last month told a meeting of the agency’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee that the new law would require EPA to “harmonize” regulatory work with the influx of funding and grants, according to slides EPA shared with E&E News.
Experts say EPA is likely to also account for Inflation Reduction Act programs in future rules for stationary sources of pollution, as it is for trucks. One example: In crafting power plant carbon rules, EPA might take stock of the law’s support for carbon reduction technologies such as sequestration and storage. In regulating oil and gas methane, it might consider newly available federal support for leak detection and monitoring.Inflation Reduction Act funding “makes ambition cheaper and easier,” said Miles Keogh, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
When EPA’s Goffman said he wanted to “harmonize” its incentives programs and rules, Keogh said, “I think he was acknowledging that there are a bunch of new pieces on the chess board.”
https://www.law360.com/articles/1537775/epa-releases-climate-plans-for-air-water-other-offices