Moving Forward: Final Methane Rule is Progress, But We Still Have Much to Do

The Clean Air Task Force evaluates the EPA's first-ever methane standards for new and modified oil and gas sources. While praising the removal of exemptions for low-producing wells and the implementation of fixed inspection frequencies, the author argues the rule is inadequate because it ignores existing sources, which account for 75% of the sector's methane emissions. To meet the White House's goal of a 40-45% reduction in methane pollution by 2025, the author asserts that the EPA must now regulate existing sources to reduce emissions by approximately 75 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

• The EPA's Final Rule is projected to prevent 300,000 short tons of methane and 150,000 tons of VOCs in 2020, increasing to 510,000 tons of methane and 210,000 tons of VOCs by 2025.
• The Final Rule improves upon the original proposal by requiring regular inspections for all well pads, including marginal or low-producing wells that produce less than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day. These wells are significant because they can be "super-emitters" leaking between 1% and 100% of their produced gas, and they represent 24% of all new wells and 20% of total fugitive emissions from well pads.
• The Final Rule replaces a variable inspection frequency based on reported leak percentages with fixed schedules: quarterly inspections for compressor stations and semiannual inspections for well pads.
• The rule is considered incomplete because it does not address methane pollution from compressors at well pads, storage vessels, liquids unloading, or intermittent-bleed pneumatic controllers, and it allows the use of older "Method 21" detection instruments over more effective IR cameras.

APA

Schroeder, D. (2016). Moving Forward: Final Methane Rule is Progress, But We Still Have Much to Do. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2016/05/moving-forward-final-methane-rule-is-progress-but-we-still-have-much-to-do/

Chicago

Schroeder, Darin. Moving Forward: Final Methane Rule is Progress, But We Still Have Much to Do. Clean Air Task Force, 2016. https://www.catf.us/2016/05/moving-forward-final-methane-rule-is-progress-but-we-still-have-much-to-do/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Schroeder |first1=Darin |title=Moving Forward: Final Methane Rule is Progress, But We Still Have Much to Do |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=26 May 2016 |url=https://www.catf.us/2016/05/moving-forward-final-methane-rule-is-progress-but-we-still-have-much-to-do/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{schroeder2016moving, author = {Schroeder, Darin}, title = {{Moving Forward: Final Methane Rule is Progress, But We Still Have Much to Do}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2016}, month = may, url = {https://www.catf.us/2016/05/moving-forward-final-methane-rule-is-progress-but-we-still-have-much-to-do/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }