The Obama administration on Friday proposed a new rule aimed at curbing emissions of planet-warming methane from oil and gas drilling on public land. It would force companies to use equipment to capture leaked gas and raise the costs they pay for extracting fuel on government property.  The draft regulation, proposed by the Interior Department, is the latest step by President Obama to use his executive authority to clamp down on the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change, and to make it more expensive for oil, gas and coal companies to mine and drill on public land. It follows last week’s controversial move by the Interior Department to halt new leases for coal mining on public lands, and to reform the government’s program for leasing federal lands to coal companies with an eye to raising their costs.  It also comes as the administration has particularly targeted emissions of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas that is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The Obama administration wants to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.  The problem of methane leaks from natural gas equipment has drawn fresh national attention because of a broken pipe in Los Angeles that has been spewing methane for months, sending thousands of people from their homes.  The proposed rule on natural gas leaks, which will be open to public comment before it is finalized, would not apply to situations like the one in California. It is aimed at accidental gas leaks and at the process of venting and burning off leaked gas — known as flaring — from oil and gas wells on public lands. It would require companies to use equipment to both capture leaked gas and to limit the process of releasing and flaring the gas.  The issue can be overwhelming. The science is complicated. We get it. This is your cheat sheet.  The proposal is also intended to increase the royalties that oil and gas companies pay to drill on public lands by tightening requirements on when operators owe royalties on flared gas, and ensuring that the Interior Department can increase royalty rates above the current rate of 12.5 percent of the value of production.  “I think most people would agree that we should be using our nation’s natural gas to power our economy — not wasting it by venting and flaring it into the atmosphere,” Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, said in a statement. “We need to modernize decades-old standards to reflect existing technologies so that we can cut down on harmful methane emissions and use this captured natural gas to generate power and provide a return to taxpayers, tribes and states for this public resource.”  Environmental groups applauded the move. “The science is clear that the best thing this administration can do to ensure our public lands are managed in the public’s interest is to end all fossil fuel extraction on them entirely,” said Michael Brune, president of the Sierra Club. “And today’s action from the Bureau of Land Management represents a positive step towards reining in this industry’s misuse of our public lands.”  While oil and gas companies have pushed back against the cost of proposed new regulations, the Interior Department estimates that the rule’s net benefits could range from $115 million to $188 million per year, including increased revenues for operators from sale of recovered natural gas and environmental benefits of reducing emissions.  United States oil production is at its highest level in nearly 30 years and the nation is now the largest producer of natural gas in the world. That boom in production has led to lower energy prices, but also to more natural gas and methane leaks. About 5 percent of the nation’s oil supply and about 11 percent of its natural gas supply are extracted from about 100,000 federal onshore oil and gas wells. In 2014, those wells generated about $3 billion in royalties to the Treasury.  From 2009 to 2014, enough natural gas was lost through venting, flaring and leaks to power more than five million homes for a year, according to figures provided by the Interior Department. That led to a loss of up to $23 million annually in royalty revenue to the federal government, according to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office.
The rules, aimed at gas and oil drilling on public lands, are intended to curb the release of methane, which contributes to global warming.