Fossil Fuels - Climate Extra

EPA Reaches First Settlement For Fracking Under Obama-Era Methane Rule

The Justice Department (DOJ), EPA and New Mexico have reached a first-time settlement with an oil and gas producer targeting the company’s failure to follow Obama-era requirements for controlling emissions of methane and other pollution during completion of hydraulic fracturing wells. EPA is touting the Oct. 17 settlement with Hilcorp Energy Co. as the first ever to address violations of the Clean Air Act’s new source performance standards (NSPS) “covering well completions following hydraulic fracturing,” according to an agency press...

Scientists Slam Permit Streamlining Bill, Prompting Pushback From Backers

Over 100 scientists are pressing Congress to oppose permit streamlining legislation awaiting possible Senate floor action, claiming the bill’s fossil fuel-friendly provisions would likely negate any greenhouse gas-reduction benefits from its provisions seeking to boost renewables and power transmission lines construction. “As U.S. scientists, we write to express our substantial concerns regarding the Energy Permitting Reform Act (‘EPRA’) of 2024,” says an Oct. 12 letter from the scientists to lawmakers, citing concerns that the bill advanced in July on a...

Early Comments Reveal Familiar Split Over EPA Draft CO2 Storage Permits

Early comments over EPA’s proposal to issue three carbon storage permits in the Permian Basin in Texas are highlighting a now-familiar debate about carbon capture and storage (CCS) development, as the permits are also demonstrating the Biden administration’s continued push to deploy CCS to help meet climate goals. “ClearPath is encouraged by [EPA’s] decision to advance three Class VI permits for the geologic sequestration of carbon under the Agency’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program,” the conservative clean energy group writes...

OMB Mulls Methane Reconsideration Rule As Industry Urges Faster Pace

Editor's Note: This story replaces an earlier story that incorrectly stated which rule is now under review at the Office of Management & Budget. The White House has begun reviewing EPA’s draft proposed rule that would reconsider what the oil and gas sector says are two crucial provisions in the agency’s methane emissions standards for the sector, even as the industry is pressing officials to take quicker action on the measure to avoid compliance challenges. The White...

Methane Stay Denial Gives EPA Strong Position, But Utility GHG Rule Looms

The Supreme Court’s denial of state and industry requests to stay EPA’s oil and gas methane rule likely leaves the agency in a strong position to defend the rule in appellate litigation, even as some industry observers are suggesting the justices might be more willing to grant pending requests concerning the agency’s power plant greenhouse gas standards. The high court Oct. 4 declined to block implementation of both the methane rule as well as EPA’s rule updating air toxics standards...

CPUC Launches Rulemaking To Cut Natural Gas Reliance Amid Cost Fears

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is launching a proceeding to reduce the state’s reliance on natural gas, which the agency views as a “critical step in supporting California’s clean energy goals,” though officials are under pressure to limit cost increases while ensuring grid reliability. “Broadly, the primary purpose of gas transition planning is to facilitate decarbonization activities over time in a way that supports equity, safety and affordability, and mitigates reliability challenges, commodity price spikes and other potential adverse...

EPA, Industry Agree To Pause Methane Reporting Suit, Amid Stay Sparring

EPA and industry groups have agreed to pause litigation over oil and gas sector greenhouse gas reporting requirements that support a statutory methane fee, giving officials several months to weigh potential changes to the rule, even as sparring continues in separate litigation over a possible Supreme Court stay of EPA’s methane standards. The development in the reporting rule case surfaces in a joint Sept. 26 motion in Independent Petroleum Producers of America, et al. v. EPA , a consolidated suit...

EPA, Allies Urge High Court To Deny Requests For Stay Of Methane Rule

EPA and its allies are urging the Supreme Court to reject calls to stay implementation of EPA’s oil and gas methane standards, arguing the rule’s critics are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their pending appellate court challenge, and will not suffer “irreparable harm” from the rule as the litigation proceeds. The arguments, outlined in multiple Sept. 20 briefs to the high court, respond to August requests by GOP-led states and industry groups for an emergency stay of the...

District Court Blocks BLM Gas ‘Waste’ Rule in Five States As Suit Proceeds

A federal district judge in North Dakota is blocking implementation in five states of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) rule curbing natural gas “waste” on public lands, while the states’ litigation against the regulation moves forward. The court’s preliminary injunction surfaces in a Sept. 12 order that also denied BLM’s request to change the venue to the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, which considered litigation over an Obama-era predecessor to BLM’s rule, issued in 2016. “At...

API Presses EPA For Quicker Reconsideration Of Methane Rule Elements

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is pressing EPA for quicker action on what it is says are crucial provisions in the oil and gas methane standards that the agency has agreed to formally reconsider, with the group asserting that an apparent EPA plan to propose updates later this year is too slow to prevent looming compliance challenges. “Based on recent discussions with EPA staff, it appears that EPA has actively been working on a reconsideration rule, with the goal of...

Whitehouse Seeks Methane Enforcement Push At Azerbaijan Climate Talks

A Democratic senator who has long focused on climate issues is expressing optimism that negotiators at this fall’s United Nations climate conference will advance efforts to enforce against methane leaks using new technology such as satellites, a move he says would build on multiple major U.S. methane policies. The arguments from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) come ahead of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. climate treaty -- scheduled for Nov. 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan -- that...

IPI Urges Agencies To Embrace EPA’s SCC Metric Amid White House Delay

Correction Appended A progressive think tank is pressing federal agencies to use EPA’s updated social cost of carbon (SCC) climate damages estimates to inform an array of rules and other decisions, after the White House has stalled an effort by its interagency working group (IWG) to craft a unified federal metric and instead urged agencies to use values based on “professional judgment.” “Is there a need for another group to revisit [the social cost metric] at this time? Not...

Environmentalists Challenge FERC Approval Of Major LNG Project

Fishermen and landowners backed by environmentalists are urging an appellate court to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of what would be the largest-ever liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, as various groups continue sparring over the Energy Department’s (DOE) pause approving new exports. “FERC’s approval of [Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2)] violates the Natural Gas Act (NGA) and illustrates FERC’s failure to consider and approve projects that are truly in the public interest, and to fulfill its duty...

Berkeley Natural Gas Tax Initiative Aims To Skirt Hook-Up Ban Court Loss

A proposed voter initiative by Berkeley, CA, to impose a hefty new tax on natural gas used by large buildings aims to decrease consumption of the fossil fuel while avoiding a potential court loss similar to a 2023 ruling that overturned the city’s ban on new gas hookups to homes and commercial buildings. “Cities are allowed to assess taxes approved by voters,” states a FAQ page on the website of Fossil Free Berkeley, the group organizing the measure identified as...

OMB Reviews Methane Fee Rule As Court Details Scope Of Oil & Gas Suit

The White House has begun inter-agency review of EPA’s draft final implementing rule for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) methane fee for oil and gas operators, a policy that industry groups and their allies in Congress have consistently opposed. At the same time, an appellate court is providing further clarity on the scope of litigation over EPA’s methane emissions standards for the sector. Judges paused challenges to discrete elements of the agency’s methane rule while directing challengers to file opening...

EPA Seeks Input For Possible Rule On ‘Advanced’ Methane Monitoring

EPA is seeking feedback for a possible rulemaking that could expand use of “advanced and emerging” methane monitoring technologies in its greenhouse gas reporting program (GHGRP) for the oil and gas sector after the agency’s recently issued updates to the program only incorporated such technologies in a relatively limited way. EPA is also suggesting that any technology updates could also apply to methane reporting requirements for the landfill sector, according to a Federal Register notice slated to be published...

States, Oil & Gas Groups Press Supreme Court To Stay Methane Rule

Republican-led states and industry groups are pressing the Supreme Court to stay EPA’s oil and gas methane standards pending court review on the rule’s merits, arguing a key appellate court wrongly declined to pause the measure even though they believe the standards infringe on states’ latitude under the Clean Air Act (CAA). EPA’s rule is “an authoritarian national command from EPA to the states and operators . . . that the states regulate, that violates the cooperative federalism embedded by...

Oil & Gas Groups Outline Early Arguments Against GHG Reporting Rule

Oil and gas groups are outlining preliminary legal arguments against EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting updates for the sector, signaling a heavy focus on claims that multiple aspects of the rule are arbitrary including its treatment of empirical data and the rule’s interaction with the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) methane fee. The litigation underscores industry scrutiny of EPA’s Subpart W GHG reporting requirements now that their reporting data will help determine their methane fee obligations starting with next year’s emissions, even...

Louisiana, Oil Sector Argue EJ Groups Lack Standing In CO2 Permit Suit

Louisiana and oil and gas industry groups are urging an appellate court to conclude that environmentalists lack standing to challenge EPA’s move granting the state primary authority over “Class VI” carbon storage permits, in a case that could influence multiple other states’ push to also directly issue such permits. “Petitioners lack Article III standing to bring this Petition because none of them identify a cognizable injury,” Louisiana and the state’s Department of Energy and Natural Resources (LDENR) write in an...

As EPA Weighs Petitions, Parties Clash On Methane-Rule Suit’s Briefing

EPA, oil and gas industry groups and other parties in litigation over the agency’s methane emissions standards for the sector are clashing over proposed briefing deadlines in the case, though the timelines could be complicated by industry’s pending administrative petitions for the agency to reconsider multiple aspects of the rule. In a combined Aug. 15 filing in State of Texas, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the parties are outlining competing arguments about when briefing should begin -- which...

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