EPA, DOE Announce $850 Million to Reduce Methane Pollution from the Oil and Gas Sector

 Issued: Jun 21, 2024 (5:00am EDT)


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EPA, DOE Announce $850 Million to Reduce Methane Pollution from the Oil and
Gas Sector


Funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda builds on nearly
100 cross-government actions that are sharply reducing methane pollution in
support of clean air, good jobs and climate action



 

WASHINGTON — Today, June 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
the U.S. Department of Energy announced that applications are open for $850
million in federal funding for projects that will help monitor, measure,
quantify and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors as part of
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Oil and natural gas
facilities are the nation’s largest industrial source of methane, a climate
“super pollutant�?? that is many times more potent than carbon dioxide and
is responsible for approximately one third of the warming from greenhouse
gases occurring today. Today’s announcement builds on unprecedented action
across the Biden Administration to dramatically cut methane pollution, with
agencies taking nearly 100 actions in 2023 alone, including the finalization
of an EPA rule that will yield an 80% reduction in methane emissions from
covered oil and gas facilities.  


This funding from the Inflation Reduction Act—the largest climate investment
in history—will help mitigate legacy air pollution, create good jobs in the
energy sector and disadvantaged communities, reduce waste and inefficiencies
in U.S. oil and gas operations, and realize near-term emissions reductions,
helping the United States reach President Biden’s ambitious climate and
clean air goals. The funding will specifically help small oil and natural gas
operators reduce methane emissions and transition to available and innovative
methane emissions reduction technologies, while also supporting partnerships
that improve emissions measurement and provide accurate, transparent data to
impacted communities. Today’s announcement constitutes a key part of broader
technical and financial assistance to be provided by the Methane Emissions
Reduction Program.  


“Today, we’re building on strong standards and historic progress to cut
methane pollution and protect communities across the country,�?? said EPA
Administrator Michael S. Regan. “These investments from President Biden’s
Investing in America agenda will drive the deployment of available and
advanced technologies to better understand where methane emissions are coming
from. That will help us more effectively reduce harmful pollution, tackle the
climate crisis and create good-paying jobs.�?? 


“As we continue to accelerate the nation’s clean energy transition, we are
taking steps now to drastically reduce harmful emissions from America’s
largest source of industrial methane – the oil and gas sector,�?? said U.S.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “I am proud to partner with EPA to
help revitalize energy communities and deliver long-lasting health and
environmental benefits across the country.�??  


“President Biden’s historic investment agenda has enabled the U.S. to
aggressively and ambitiously take the actions we need to decarbonize every
sector of the economy. We are making significant progress in our efforts to
cut pollution – including super-pollutants like methane – while creating
thousands of quality jobs and lowering energy costs for Americans,�?? said
Assistant to President Biden and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “From
implementing the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan that lays out a
detailed roadmap for the federal government, to launching a Methane Task Force
that brings all relevant agencies together around robust implementation, to
hosting the first-ever White House methane summit that has catalyzed
cross-sector partnerships, President Biden’s leadership on tackling methane
is part of a comprehensive and historic climate effort that is spurring
technological innovation, creating good-paying jobs and economic opportunity,
cutting pollution in every sector, and holding polluters accountable.
Today’s investments further those aims by providing the resources needed to
monitor methane emissions and rapidly identify potential leaks to help protect
our communities and planet.�??  


The primary objectives of this funding opportunity announcement are to: 



Help small operators significantly reduce methane emissions from oil and
natural gas operations, using commercially available technology solutions for
methane emissions monitoring, measurement, quantification and mitigation. 




Accelerate the repair of methane leaks from low-producing wells and the
deployment of early-commercial technology solutions to reduce methane
emissions from new and existing equipment such as natural gas compressors,
gas-fueled engines, associated gas flares, liquids unloading operations,
handling of produced water and other equipment leakage. 




Improve communities’ access to empirical data and participation in
monitoring through multiple installations of monitoring and measurement
technologies while establishing collaborative relationships between equipment
providers and communities. 




Enhance the detection and measurement of methane emissions from oil and gas
operations at regional scale, while ensuring nationwide data consistency
through the creation of collaborative partnerships. These partnerships will
span the country’s oil and gas-producing regions and draw in oil and natural
gas owners and operators, universities, environmental justice organizations,
community leaders, unions, technology developers, Tribes, state regulatory
agencies, non-governmental research organizations, federally funded research
and development centers and DOE’s National Laboratories.  



A competitive solicitation for this funding will enable a broad range of
eligible U.S. entities to apply, including industry, academia,
non-governmental organizations, Tribes and state and local governments. This
funding opportunity is expected to achieve measurable outcomes for skilled
workforce training, community involvement and environmental justice. Funding
applicants are required to submit Community Benefits Plans to demonstrate
meaningful engagement with and tangible benefits to the communities in which
the proposed projects will be located. These plans must provide details on the
applicant’s commitments to community and labor engagement, quality job
creation, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, and benefits to
disadvantaged communities as part of the Justice40 Initiative. Established
in Executive Order 14008, the President’s Justice40 Initiative set the goal
that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy and
other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by
underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. 


Read more details of this funding opportunity. For any questions on the
application, applicants must submit written questions through the FedConnect
portal at FedConnect.net. For assistance with any technical issues with
grants.gov, please contact 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov. More
information, including applicant eligibility, can be found on the government
grants page. 


About the Methane Emissions Reduction Program 


The Inflation Reduction Act, through the Methane Emissions Reduction Program,
directed EPA to take action to tackle wasteful methane emissions from the oil
and gas sector. Utilizing resources provided by Congress in the Inflation
Reduction Act, EPA is partnering with DOE to provide $1.36 billion in
financial and technical assistance to improve methane monitoring and reduce
methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector. These
investments are also expected to result in co-benefits of reducing
non-greenhouse gas emissions such as volatile organic compounds and hazardous
air pollutants.  


Today’s announcement builds on the $350 million in formula grant funding EPA
and DOE announced in December 2023 to states to support industry efforts to
voluntarily reduce emissions at low-producing wells, monitor emissions, and
conduct environmental restoration at well pads.  


Visit EPA and DOE websites for more information about the Methane Emissions
Reduction Program. 


Delivering on the U.S. Methane Action Plan 


The funding opportunity announced today is a part of the Biden-Harris
Administration’s comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to reduce
harmful methane emissions across economic sectors, as outlined in the U.S.
Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. Below is a summary of recent and
ongoing initiatives:   



In December, EPA announced final standards that will sharply reduce methane
and other harmful air pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry,
including from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide, promote
the use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant
economic and public health benefits.   




In May, EPA issued a final rule to strengthen, expand and update methane
emissions reporting requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems under
EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, as required by President Biden’s
Inflation Reduction Act. The final revisions will ensure greater transparency
and accountability for methane pollution from oil and natural gas facilities
by improving the accuracy of annual emissions reporting from these
operations. 




EPA is working to finalize a Waste Emissions Charge rule, which will provide
an incentive for companies to adopt best practices to reduce wasteful
emissions and help capture near-term opportunities for methane reductions
while EPA and states work toward full implementation of the final oil and gas
rule.  




The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration proposed a new rule to significantly improve the detection and
repair of leaks from more than 2.7 million miles of natural gas pipelines. The
proposed rule would deploy pipeline workers across the country to keep more
product in the pipe and prevent dangerous accidents, creating up to $2.3
billion annually in estimated benefits.  
The Department of the Interior is deploying nearly $5 billion funded by the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for workers to plug tens of thousands of
orphaned oil and gas wells throughout the United States, including $64 million
in 2023 for hundreds of improperly abandoned wells on federal lands, up to
$660 million for states to plug thousands of high-priority orphaned wells on
state and private lands, and an initial investment of nearly $40 million for
Tribal Nations to address orphaned wells on their lands.  
The Department of Agriculture, EPA and Food and Drug Administration recently
launched a new Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and
Recycling Organics to accelerate the prevention of food loss and waste – a
major source of methane emissions.  
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law appropriated more than $11 billion over 15
years to eligible states and Tribes to reclaim abandoned coal mines, which
will address dangerous safety and environmental conditions, including the
elimination of major sources of water and methane pollution.  
The Administration recently released the first ever National Strategy to
Advance an Integrated U.S. Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Monitoring, and
Information System to enhance coordination and integration of greenhouse gas
– including methane – measurement, monitoring and information efforts.
Such efforts include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s
collection of high-resolution methane leak data via the EMIT Mission on the
International Space Station, aircraft flights coordinated by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute for
Standards and Technology to connect satellite data to specific emissions
sources on the ground, and the work of DOE and the State Department to
coordinate international methane data collection and measurement efforts via a
new Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification Working Group and the
UN Methane Alert and Response System.  



Together, these efforts across the Biden-Harris Administration are
accelerating reductions in methane emissions, cutting costs, supporting clean
air and public health in disadvantaged communities, creating good jobs and
advancing President Biden’s ambitious climate goals.  


For further information: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov) 
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