The US will fine methane emissions in the oil sector

He Government The American announced this Friday that will economically penalize methane emissions from the oil and gas sector naturally to reduce pollution caused by exhaust gases greenhouse effect.

He Methane emission reduction programit is stated in the press release United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, in English), will force those oil and gas companies that exceed methane emission levels posted by Congress pay a fee.

Proposal – that Congress approved as part of the Inflation Reduction Act – will mean charging large energy producers $900 for every ton of methane emissions that exceed the cap; That rate would increase to $1,200 in 2025 and stabilize at $1,500 in 2026.

“We are focused on working with businesses, states and communities to ensure this NOW lead the implementation of technologies and innovations that help develop a clean energy economy,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.

In the ad, EPA specified that methane “is a climate superpollutant stronger than carbon dioxide” and which is responsible for about a third of global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

“We know that methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Fortunately, the Methane Emissions Reduction Program will encourage producers to reduce methane emissions,” said Senator Tom Carper, chairman of the Committee on Environment and public works of the Senate.

In this sense, for the EPA, the rapid reduction of methane emissions in oil and natural gas sector – which is the largest industrial source of such emissions in the US – “is a measure that can slow the rapid increase in global temperatures.”

Just this Friday, POT confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year since records began, a fact directly related to climate change caused by pollutant emissions.

In addition, EPA works with US Department of Energy to provide more than $1 billion in financial and technical assistance—provided by the Inflation Reduction Act—to this industry to “accelerate the transition to clean, low-emission technologies.”