US to slash ‘super-polluting’ methane levels by 80%

At the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, the Biden administration has announced a historic plan to sharply cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in the next 15 years as part of new rules to put limits on the “super pollutant.” 

The new regulations plan to reduce methane emissions from the huge oil and gas industry in the US by 80% from levels that would be expected without the new regulations. In 2030 alone, the expected reductions will be equivalent to 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – more than the annual emissions from 28 million gasoline cars.

The plan “leverages the latest cost-effective, innovative technologies and proven solutions to prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038, the equivalent of 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide – nearly as much as all the carbon dioxide emitted by the power sector in 2021,” according to the release.

Methane is 80 times more powerful in the warming of the planet and is responsible for about one-third of the warming already happening, according to the EPA. The US is one of the world’s largest emitters. While agriculture is the largest source of methane emissions, mostly from livestock, the energy sector is the world’s second-largest source.

A slew of private and public contributors have raised $1 billion in funds to set the regulation in place. Angola, Kenya, Romania, Kenya, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan have also joined the global methane pledge, which was initially set up by the US and the EU at COP 26 with a more modest target of cutting methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Now, more than 150 countries have signed up.

Today, 50 oil companies signed on to the pledge, including Saudi Aramco, Brazil’s Petrobras, Sonangol from Angola, and multinationals like Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP.

The EPA estimates that the new regulations will also protect public health by avoiding 16 million tons of volatile organic compounds from 2024 to 2038, along with 590,000 tons of toxic air pollutants like benzene and toluene. In this same timeframe, the rule will prevent wasteful leaks and other releases of about 400 billion cubic feet of valuable fuel each year – enough to heat nearly 8 million American homes for the winter.