The U.S. Department of Interior on Tuesday finalized a Bureau of Land Management rule designed to drastically reduce methane waste on tribal and federal lands, saving taxpayer dollars and improving public health and environment.
Under the new policy, developed over several years, about 175,000 to 180,000 tons of “fugitive” methane will be captured annually.
The San Juan Basin contains some 40,000 oil and gas wells, about 3,300 of which are within La Plata County, many on public and tribal lands.
La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt campaigned for the rule’s passage, visiting Washington, D.C., in April to testify before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
“I am so pleased to see BLM following Colorado’s lead with these final rules,” said Lachelt, who in 2014 was appointed to head Gov. John Hickenlooper’s task force to address the issue of local regulations on oil and gas production.
“In Colorado, we have been at the forefront of the push to save our domestic energy resources and protect our taxpayers, so we can address our air quality issues, but we can’t do it alone. BLM’s final rule is a win for taxpayers, the environment and our economy. States, tribes and federal taxpayers are losing as much as $23 million annually in royalty revenues when natural gas is wasted, but now that revenue can be turned to protecting our public infrastructure like schools, roads and bridges.”
The new policy will update a 30-year-old set of rules that regulates venting, flaring and leaking on production sites that total 41 billion cubic feet per year in wasted natural gas, amounting to as much as $23 million in lost royalties, the BLM estimates.
It will take effect in phases, requiring production companies to monitor leaks, cut flaring and upgrade infrastructure – tasks proponents say will create jobs. But the adjustment is not expected to be a leap in Colorado, where in 2014, the state became the first in the U.S. to pass regulations on methane emissions.
“This rule to prevent waste of our nation’s natural gas supplies is good government, plain and simple,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a news release. “We are proving that we can cut harmful methane emissions that contribute to climate change, while putting in place standards that make good economic sense for the nation. Not only will we save more natural gas to power our nation, but we will modernize decades-old standards to keep pace with industry and to ensure a fair return to the American taxpayers for use of a valuable resource that belongs to all of us.”
Tuesday’s announcement came as a victory for environmentalists and health advocates across the West.
“Sitting, as we do, under the highest concentrations of methane emissions in the nation, residents of the Four Corners are uniquely appreciative of the administration’s efforts to curb excessive methane emissions,” said Dan Olson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, in a prepared statement. “This rule will not only save money and resources, but will protect the climate and the health of local communities.”
However, some energy industry groups say the rule is beyond the BLM’s scope of power. On the heels of the rule’s finalization, the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, arguing that companies already mind air quality through Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
“We support the goals of capturing greater quantities of associated gas and reducing gas waste, but overreaching regulation that fails to acknowledge industry success is not the most effective way to meet those goals,” Western Energy Alliance Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Kathleen Sgamma said in a statement.
Josh Mantell, carbon management campaign manager for The Wilderness Society, said in a Tuesday news conference that under the Mineral Leasing Act, the BLM is obligated to impose such regulations and doubted the industry’s litigation will get far.
The rule is among the last of the Obama administration’s to address climate change, and on a long list of regulations and executive orders environmentalists fear the Donald Trump presidency will undo. The president-elect has vowed to deregulate the energy industry, but advocates remain optimistic, citing bipartisan support for the rule among lawmakers.
“It’s too soon to say what they may or may not do,” Jon Goldstein, senior energy policy manager of the Environmental Defense Fund, said of the president-elect’s administration. “At the end of the day, this rule has tremendous support across the West. It’s a rule on the bedrock of what fiscal conservatives are about: It reduces government waste and protects taxpayers. It makes sense through the lenses that are important to folks on that side of the spectrum.”
jpace@durangoherald.com
