President Joe Biden restores Obama-era methane emissions standards
President Joe Biden officially restored this week S.J. Res. 14, a rule from the Obama administration that had required companies to capture methane leaks from wells they were digging.
S.J. Res. 14 was a joint resolution of disapproval that passed both the House and Senate earlier this year, targeting the Trump administration’s 2020 Rescission rule. That rule had made it so that the methane and other pollution requirements were rendered “as though such rule had never taken effect.”
“The Trump Administration’s reckless elimination of commonsense methane pollution standards violated Americans’ right to clean air, initiated a retreat in our fight against the climate crisis and teed up devastating public health impacts,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) said. “It helped no one aside from a small group of the worst oil and gas polluters and sold out the American public, their environment, and their health in the process. By signing this resolution into law today, President Biden reinstated critical climate protections and reaffirmed the Environmental Protection Agency’s obligation to ensure clean air and a healthy environment for all Americans.”
Pallone labeled it the most significant climate legislation enacted by this Congress so far and a step on the path to stronger future protections. The Congressional ability to denounce a rule like this was provided by the Congressional Review Act, a law empowering Congress to review new federal regulations issued by government agencies and overrule regulations through an expedited legislative process.
The move was immediately hailed by the clean energy sector, including the Edison Electric Institute (EEI).
“EEI applauds @POTUS and members of Congress for using the Congressional Review Act to enable @EPA to develop strong and cost-effective federal regulations on methane emissions throughout the natural gas supply chain for new and existing sources,” EEI wrote in a series of tweets. “Strong and cost-effective federal regulations on methane emissions are essential to ensuring the continued availability of natural gas as a 24/7 energy source to help accelerate the use of renewables. EEI will continue to work w/ @EPA to #CutMethane.”
In signing the legislation, Biden noted that it is a first step to cutting methane pollution, meant to be conducted in concert with his administration’s infrastructure plan. That plan would authorize $21 billion in environmental remediation to cap abandoned wells, leaking wells, and oil and gas wells.
