White House seeks to curb methane from US shale energy boom

The Obama administration has launched a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the US shale energy boom amid concerns that methane from oil and gas sites has the potential to exacerbate climate change.

Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse agent, and on Friday the administration started the first government effort to measure emissions with a view to introducing possible new regulation by 2016.

President Barack Obama is pushing climate change issues back up his political agenda, and the new methane strategy is part of broader efforts to reach his goal of reducing US emissions by 17 per cent by 2020 (from 2005 levels).

Environmental groups have lobbied the White House to target methane. The new strategy encompasses emissions from dairy cows and landfill sites, as well as companies extracting oil and gas from shale rock formations.

The White House said in a report: “Reducing methane emissions is a powerful way to take action on climate change; and putting methane to use can support local economies with a source of clean energy that generates revenue, spurs investment, improves safety and leads to cleaner air.”

While natural gas from shale has been hailed as a cleaner source of power for the US, environmental groups say that if methane emissions are not controlled, they could end up being more harmful to the climate than coal use.

Methane currently accounts for almost 9 per cent of US greenhouse emissions, the White House said. But the issue of how much of the gas is leaked or deliberately vented from oil and gas production sites is hotly debated.

Dan Utech, special assistant to Mr Obama for energy and climate change, told reporters that the Environmental Protection Agency would soon decide how to reduce methane emissions. Its options included new regulations, and if the EPA decided they were necessary, these would be developed by 2016.

The EPA will begin by soliciting information from independent experts on emissions and the technology that can control them, with a focus on oil wells, leaks, pneumatic devices and compressors. “We know there are a lot of cost-effective reductions that are available out there,” said Mr Utech.

Eric Pooley of the Environmental Defense Fund, a green group, applauded the initiative. He said: “We’re confident that when all the facts are in, the administration will make the decision that rule-making is in order here.”

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its ability to trap heat near the earth’s surface over a period of 20 years.

The American Petroleum Institute, the biggest oil industry lobby group, expressed opposition to new regulations on Friday, saying energy companies were already voluntarily reducing emissions.

Howard Feldman, the API’s director of regulatory and scientific affairs, said: “Additional regulations are not necessary and could have a chilling effect on the American energy renaissance, our economy and our national security.”

Last month, Colorado became the first US state to impose regulations on methane emissions associated with oil and gas production.

Mr Utech acknowledged that state governments were in a better position than the federal authorities to regulate production on private land.