Oil-state governors lay out different paths on methane

Governors from New Mexico and Wyoming echoed the federal debate on methane at a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

June 15, 2022

Two governors from states with the highest fossil fuel production from federal minerals championed their efforts yesterday to rein in methane emissions.

At a hearing before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, however, the state officials, one Republican and one Democrat, disagreed on whether the federal government should strengthen rules on oil and gas companies to curb releases of the powerful greenhouse gas.

"Wyoming does not need additional layers of federal regulation to regulate methane emissions,” Republican Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming, the largest natural gas producer from federal minerals, said, adding that such regulations are an "inhibitor to any kind of business.”

Gordon said his state’s oil industry has already faced challenges from the Biden administration’s interest in curbing the federal oil and gas program.

He instead pointed to state-level rules, which in Wyoming vary by region, with high-pollution areas facing stricter standards. ”Our regulatory process works and has buy-in from the Wyoming oil and gas industry,” he said.

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whose state recently passed aggressive new standards to stem methane leaks, said New Mexico is “proof positive” that industry and government can be part of a climate solution.

“You can increase production, you can reduce emissions, you can innovate, you can create new jobs,” she told lawmakers, noting the growth of in-state businesses to serve the methane mitigation services sector.

The state-level differences echo congressional fights over whether to tighten oversight of industry to reduce the bleed of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The debate has become even more fraught due to current high energy prices and increasing demand from Europe for U.S. natural gas. Both rising prices and the demand uptick are being driven, in part, by the Russian war against Ukraine. The war prompted the U.S. to ban Russian oil imports and has encouraged European countries to try and unwind their heavy energy reliance on Russian resources.

Ranking member Garret Graves (R-La.), however, argued that industry has no desire to leak methane and that its capture is an excellent lever for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

He also criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to increase national oil and gas production and warned against an all-renewables outlook for energy that ignores a growing necessity for natural gas globally — from Europe and developing countries.

“We can be rational … while we continue to work toward deploying renewable energy resources,” he said.

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R) also critiqued the White House for promising to increase oil and gas to supply to Europe while simultaneously advancing regulations on the oil and gas sector at home that could have a “chilling effect,” a reference to EPA’s proposed regulations on new and existing sources of methane pollution in the oil sector (Climatewire, Nov. 2, 2021).

“I think it's a foolish way to govern, and it's hurting Americans now, for some vague promise of slightly better weather in the faraway future,” he said.

Dems seek regulatory fix

Democrats tried to steer the debate toward potential regulatory solutions on leaks while highlighting the scale of the methane problem in the oil sector.

Select Committee Chair Kathy Castor (D-Florida) noted that more than 180 billion cubic feet of salable natural gas was likely lost to leaks and release from oil and gas operations globally, last year, equal to a significant chunk of the Europe market. The oil sector accounts for most of an increase in methane emissions between 2006 and 2017, she said.

“Our friends across the aisle often call for expanding production of natural gas as a solution to the climate crisis. But unless harmful methane pollution is addressed, the climate impacts of gas can be worse than the coal it may replace,” she said.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said the debate over methane needed to focus on the severity of the problem and a likely underreporting of the actual scale of emissions.

“The real solution to the climate crisis is to dramatically reduce fossil fuel extraction and begin that thing we talk a lot about, that transition to cleaner energy and a just transition as we do it,” he said.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more powerful than carbon dioxide as a warming agent, but with a shorter lifespan. That dynamic has elevated congressional attention on efforts to stem leaks of methane from the nation’s oil and gas infrastructure — the largest industrial source of national methane emissions — as a near-term climate action.

The select committee is charged with coordinating House efforts to advance solutions to worsening global warming.

In their testimony, both the Wyoming and New Mexico leaders championed the role of the oil sector in driving emissions reductions.

“The oil and gas industry is both extremely important to the state economy and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions,” Grisham said, noting that would be a mistake to box out oil producers and other stakeholders when crafting solutions.

Grisham, who previously represented New Mexico in the House, also urged flexibility for how states and companies approach their emissions reductions.


By:  Heather Richards
Source: EnergyWire