ARLINGTON — It’s easy to miss from the street. But in the self-proclaimed “American Dream City,” famous for its roller coasters and sports stadiums, residents know where the roller coasters are. Oil and gas wells and compressor stations are a part of everyday life, located between homes, schools, businesses, and shopping malls.
Equipment can also leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that causes climate change by trapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane often comes out together with other chemicals such as volatile organic compounds that contribute to the formation of smog, creating a mixture of chemicals that are harmful to human health.
Earlier this year, long-awaited federal climate change rules were finalized, requiring oil and gas operators to drastically reduce the amount of methane released from many oil fields, including those in Texas.
The rule, developed with industry input, requires operators to identify and repair equipment leaking methane and to curb flaring, the practice of burning excess natural gas. There is. Under this rule, operators must monitor emissions, wasteful flaring, and leaks from most existing and new well sites.
States are currently on a schedule to submit plans to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency detailing how they will implement the rule. Texas regulators are accepting public comments on the state plan until Dec. 31.
Some residents of Arlington, home to about 400 gas wells and 50 drilling fields, believe the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has done more than the bare minimum outlined in EPA guidelines and that President-elect Donald Trump’s He hopes to submit a plan before taking office.
Trump rescinded the methane reduction rule during his first term. Experts say it would take years to roll back the current rules, and support from industry could help keep them in place.
At a public meeting in Arlington last month, Texas environmental regulators heard from more than a dozen residents about the proposed rule. “Air quality is a matter of life and death,” said a woman with severe asthma, calling on state regulators to prioritize public health over economic profit. One man called on regulators to quickly implement rules to protect people from the health risks of fracking in urban areas, noting that oil and gas facilities are located near schools and day care centers.
“Smoke bombs are no fun, and smelling rotten eggs is no fun,” Rogelio Meixeiro, an Arlington resident and member of the nonprofit organization Sunrise Talent, told TCEQ regulators. Your job is to trust that you will make every effort to reduce methane emissions. ”
Hydraulic fracturing in Arlington dates back 20 years, when drillers discovered they could use horizontal drilling for natural gas in the Barnett Shale formation beneath the city. More than 1 million people in Tarrant County, which includes Arlington, now live within a half-mile of a gas well, according to data from Livable Arlington, a local environmental group. Organizers say oil and gas air pollution disproportionately impacts many low-income communities of color.
Neighboring cities have tried and failed to ban fracking. Roughly a decade ago, the city of Denton, located about 72 miles north of Arlington, voted to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits. This local ordinance was quickly overturned by the state Legislature, which passed a law prohibiting cities and towns across Texas from imposing such bans.
Several studies have shown that living near oil and gas wells can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary dysfunction, anxiety, depression, premature birth, and fetal growth restriction, primarily due to air pollution from oil wells. Related.
Ranjana Bhandari, founder and executive director of Livable Arlington, said, “For years, we have been receiving complaints from neighbors about odors, odors, headaches, illnesses, and how to deal with them.” . “In many cases, we don’t have a cure.”
Desiree Rios
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What do the rules do?
Methane, the main component of natural gas, accounts for about 16% of global emissions. Because methane persists in the atmosphere for decades rather than centuries, reducing emissions can lower global temperatures more quickly.
Most of the United States’ methane emissions come from the energy sector, particularly in Texas, the nation’s largest oil and gas producing state.
Last year, Texas produced 42% of the nation’s oil, a record. Most of the state’s oil comes from the Permian Basin, a 75,000-square-mile region that stretches from eastern New Mexico and covers much of west Texas. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, the Permian Basin produces 1.4 million tons of methane each year, enough to meet the annual gas needs of about 2 million households.
Currently, Texas does not have regulations to capture methane emissions leaking from energy infrastructure. The state’s implementation of EPA rules could change that.
The regulation is divided into two parts: one for new facilities built or modified after December 2022, and one for existing facilities. Most oil and gas facilities in Texas are existing methane sources.
A major focus of the proposed state rule is to address leaks caused by equipment failure, the number one cause of methane pollution from oil and gas operations.
Operators will be tasked with inspecting the site for leaks using handheld gas imaging cameras and other technology, which must be approved by the EPA, to identify which equipment needs to be repaired or replaced. Gas wells should also be monitored for leaks until they are closed and plugged.
Oil and gas companies need to phase out routine flaring, a relatively common practice of burning off excess natural gas produced at the wellhead during oil extraction. This is often done to dispose of gas that the company deems uneconomic to recover or transport, and in some cases as a safety measure to relieve pressure in the well.
The flare may not be able to burn off all the methane, or it may go off unexpectedly, releasing raw methane into the atmosphere.
In Texas, state law requires companies not to combust or vent gas without special permission from the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. The agency approved about 3,660 venting and flaring requests from oil and gas operators in 2022, according to agency data. Last year’s numbers are not available on the agency’s website.
Under EPA regulations, newly constructed wells are required to completely cease routine flaring. Existing sites can only be refired if the operator proves that the gas cannot be recovered for sale, reinjection, or reuse.
The U.S. oil and gas industry is already doing its part to reduce emissions by improving production processes, resulting in methane emissions dropping 37% between 2015 and 2022, according to a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute. announced the group.
The EPA estimates that the rule will reduce methane emissions by 58 million tons nationwide by 2038, reduce smog-forming volatile organic compounds by 16 million tons, and reduce toxins such as carcinogenic benzene by 59 million tons. It is estimated that this will result in a reduction of nearly 10,000 tons.
According to the EPA, the standard would provide up to $98 billion worth of net health benefits over that time, after accounting for industry compliance costs.
What does the new Trump administration mean?
Texas has already received $134 million from the federal government to permanently plug low-producing oil wells to reduce methane emissions.
Trump also said he would roll back federal regulations targeting climate change, although the EPA’s methane regulations are a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s climate change strategy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change advocates quickly warned that this could lead to weakening or eliminating federal safeguards designed to limit harmful air pollution and greenhouse gases.
But some experts believe President Trump could face new pressure if he tries to overturn methane regulations.
Arvind Ravikumar, assistant professor and co-director of the Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, said industry support for reducing emissions has increased since the previous Trump administration.
“Technology has come a very long way. There is a whole ecosystem of industries dedicated to addressing methane emissions, and in 2016 the technology has improved so much that it now covers many oil and gas industries, large and small. It is regularly installed across the country by gas utilities,” he said.
Ravikumar added that international buyers are increasingly demanding clean and climate-friendly oil and gas production. Earlier this year, the European Union approved standards that set limits on methane emissions in imported gas. Ravikumar said this will require all suppliers to the European Union, including the United States, to comply with the new restrictions.
“So U.S. exporters are under pressure to make sure their supplies are clean and have low methane emissions,” he said.
Without EPA standards, U.S. producers could struggle to compete in global markets, Ravikumar said.
Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said state-run operators have been focused on reducing emissions for years and have made significant progress.
“We look forward to President Trump and his administration seeking stakeholder input to ensure that the policies implemented can facilitate this progress and weather political change. In the meantime, TXOGA “The workgroup has been actively involved in state implementation of the Biden Administration’s methane regulations to ensure common sense, science-based outcomes for all operators,” he said.
Overturning new methane rules could take years, as they must overcome regulatory hurdles and public scrutiny.
Some are concerned that even if Texas adopts new rules, it may not be enforceable.
“Strong rules are great, but they need to be properly and fully enforced to deliver on their promise,” said Elisabeth Lieberknecht, regulatory and legislative affairs manager at the Environmental Defense Fund.
TCEQ said the agency is understaffed, in part because salaries are not high enough to attract and retain employees. At a September legislative session, agency representatives said there were nearly 400 vacancies in government agencies.
David Ryan, a senior environmental research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said it’s likely states will choose not to enforce the rule without strong federal oversight to enforce compliance.
“What we’re finding is that states like Texas are basically doing no enforcement,” Ryan said. “In an ideal world, the EPA would put Texas in a bind, but I think in President Trump’s case they might do nothing and leave Texas unenforced.”
Disclosure: The Environmental Defense Fund, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and the University of Texas at Austin financially support The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded in part by contributions from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. We have supported you. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. See the complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune (https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/16/texas-epa-methane-rule-oil-gas-public-comment/).
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