Energy Exchange

Colorado again leads the way with methane verification protocol

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 29, 2024

Developing more accurate emissions inventories with real-world measurement data of oil and gas climate pollution is key to verifying our progress toward addressing climate change.

Earlier this month, the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division achieved a major breakthrough to do just that when it finalized its Greenhouse Gas Intensity Verification Protocol, marking the first time a government agency has created a comprehensive framework for measurement, reporting and verification of methane emissions at oil and gas production sites.

Also posted in Methane regulatons / Authors: admin / Comments are closed

Colorado’s methane pollution verification rule is a game-changer: here are three reasons why

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 31, 2023

By Nini Gu

On Thursday, July 20^th we saw a major shift in how methane emissions from oil and gas sources can be regulated, and to no one’s surprise it came from the nation’s leading state on this issue: Colorado.

Also posted in Air Quality, Methane regulatons / Authors: admin / Comments are closed

Trust, but verify: How Colorado must lead as latest methane rulemaking advances

By EDF Blogs / Published: February 22, 2023

By Nini Gu

Colorado’s oil and gas regulators face an important decision that will determine whether the state can continue to successfully cut methane emissions and reach its statutory climate targets.

In 2021, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted a rule that limits how much greenhouse gas can be emitted per barrel of oil and gas produced. However, the 2021 GHG intensity rule left open the critical question of how oil and gas operators can demonstrate that their emissions comply with the new standard.

Allowing companies to determine for themselves how to measure and report emissions without strong guidance and a requirement to use direct measurement data threatens to undermine the intensity standard and set a bad precedent for other jurisdictions — in the U.S. and abroad — that are looking to implement performance-based standards.

Fortunately, the Air Pollution Control Division is now undertaking a GHG Intensity Verification rulemaking to address this glaring omission, offering the opportunity to create a program based on best-available science and grounded in real and meaningful outcomes.

This GHG Intensity Verification Rule must be accurate, reliable and capable of directly quantifying the volume of real-world methane emissions so Colorado can make informed decisions to protect communities and the climate.

Also posted in Air Quality, Climate, Gas to Clean / Comments are closed

As nations sign on to end routine flaring, Biden admin must act

By Jon Goldstein / Published: July 15, 2022

The last two months have seen encouraging momentum in the effort to tackle emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas that drives over a quarter of current warming — and the practice of flaring, which is a major source of energy waste and methane pollution.

Starting with last month’s Major Economies Forum, one of the last major climate gatherings before COP 27 in Egypt, signatories to the Global Methane Pledge introduced a new goal to end routine flaring as soon as possible, and by 2030 at the latest.

Then, just this week, the U.S. and Mexico announced a commitment to cooperate and help Mexico develop a plan to eliminate routine flaring in alignment with the Global Methane Pledge.

Fast action to end routine flaring is critical for reducing emissions of methane, protecting human health and the climate, and stopping needless waste of energy resources as the world faces an energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now, the U.S. has work to do to ensure domestic policies can live up to our own global commitments. Fortunately, both the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency have the authority and obligation to implement strong rules that end routine flaring.

Also posted in Air Quality, BLM Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, PermianMAP / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed

Lessons from New Mexico and Colorado’s leading methane rules

By Jon Goldstein / Published: May 5, 2022

Methane leaks from oil and gas sites represents a problem on many fronts. They create harmful air pollution, contribute to global warming and can even cause explosions. They also result in a lot of wasted gas.

Colorado and New Mexico — two of the nation’s leading energy producers — recently ramped up their methane pollution standards for the oil and gas industry.

Ensure standards apply to smaller, low-producing wells

The vast majority of the nation’s wells produce less than 15 barrels of oil a day and there are often calls for these sites to be exempted from environmental standards. This is a major problem because their footprint is huge and their climate impact adds up.

Also posted in BLM Methane, Methane / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed

For Colorado’s clean truck ambition, it’s time for action, not delay

By Larissa Koehler / Published: April 20, 2022

In March 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis unveiled an ambitious and forward-thinking zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty truck strategy his administration said could reduce climate emissions from this sector at least 45% by 2050.

Gov. Polis is right: Colorado’s Clean Truck Strategy would build upon the state’s “national-leading climate and infrastructure goals.” But key pieces necessary to achieve that ambition have already stalled. Three state agencies (Colorado Energy Office, Department of Transportation, Air Pollution Control Division) want to push adoption of the Advanced Clean Trucks rule and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus (low NOx) rule — key policy drivers for this transition — to next year.

In response, EDF and a host of other environmental groups, environmental justice advocates and local governments filed a petition with the state’s Air Quality Control Commission to move forward with the ACT and low NOx rulemaking and adopt these regulations this year, rather than delay to 2023, and AQCC agreed to hear the petition on April 21.

In short, the AQCC should work with the Polis administration to move forward with adopting the ACT and low NOx rulemaking by the end of the year.

Also posted in Electric Vehicles, General / Comments are closed