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OIL MAJORS SEE POLITICAL SAFETY IN EPA REGULATING NATURAL GAS METHANE: The reputation of natural gas as a clean fuel is on the line — and the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest methane proposal is exposing a split in industry over how to protect that image.
Global oil majors like Shell and Equinor are now breaking publicly, and in some cases forcefully, from the viewpoints of the trade groups that represent them.
The companies are calling on the Trump administration to regulate their methane emissions, countering a strong push from the American Petroleum Institute and others to do away with all direct methane rules.
So far, the EPA is listening to the trade groups. The agency has proposed to eliminate all direct regulation of oil and gas methane, the main component in natural gas that is also a greenhouse gas dozens of times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The EPA, in its proposal, says it is redundant to regulate methane from the oil and gas sector, as the Obama administration did, because the agency already requires controls for another air pollutant, volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Those controls also capture methane, the EPA adds, adopting an argument oil trade groups like API have made for years.
Shell, Equinor, and other oil majors, though, are committing to opposition: Methane is a “potent greenhouse gas (GHG) for which its direct regulation is appropriate and necessary,” Shell wrote in comments Monday to the EPA.
Shell says it supports methane regulations that are “efficient and effective” and encourage innovation. “We believe that such an approach is critically important for ensuring natural gas plays a vital role in transitioning to a low-carbon energy future and economy,” the company wrote.
Equinor, too, told the EPA regulations for new and existing wells are “a necessary element of a comprehensive, economy-wide U.S. policy program to address global climate change.”
“[I]t is important to have a federal regulatory ‘floor’ that provides a consistent, flexible, predictable, and comprehensive policy framework,” the company added in comments to the EPA on Monday.
So why are they saying this, and why now? Natural gas is next on the target list for environmental advocates, and the industry knows it.
If the public feels like natural gas is making climate change much worse, it would damage the fuel’s image as a low-carbon fuel and complicate oil and gas companies’ efforts to position themselves for survival in a carbon-constrained world.
The Trump administration’s plans to walk back methane regulations won’t help public perception. The Clean Air Task Force released research last week showing the EPA’s plans would allow for an additional 4.3 million metric tons of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in 2025, which the group says is the equivalent of 100 coal-fired power plants.
Those emissions levels are “pretty staggering, especially when you’re trying to say that natural gas for electricity generation is clean,” Darin Schroeder, an attorney with the Clean Air Task Force, told Abby. “That kind of runs counter to what we need to do to really prevent the worst impacts of climate change.”
Will the oil majors’ comments change the EPA’s mind? Likely not.
“I’m not sure the administration cares that much about some companies saying this is the wrong direction,” David Hayes, executive director of New York University’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, told Abby. “They seem to be very attuned to the small operators, the ones who are looking to reduce their environmental obligations.”
“This is an unusual administration in that regard,” Hayes added. “They never seem to listen to the industry leaders and want to divide and conquer.”
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Energy will not publish Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 29 in observance of Thanksgiving.
ABOUT THAT ‘BLEAK’ UN REPORT: Greenhouse gas emissions need to decline 7.6% a year across the world, faster than previously estimated, to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, according to a report from the United Nations.
That level of emissions cuts is necessary if the world is to fulfill the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Climate accord — limiting the Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Countries in the Paris deal pledged to hold total global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
“The summary findings are bleak,” said the U.N’s annual “emissions gap” report published Tuesday, which assesses the difference between the world’s current path and what’s required to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.
More gnarly numbers: The report found greenhouse emissions have increased 1.5% per year in the last decade, stabilizing only briefly between 2014 and 2016. Emissions reached a record in 2018.
They would have to start falling fast to reach the goals of the Paris pact, under which nations set their own nonbinding targets for reducing carbon emissions.
By 2030, emissions would need to be 25% or 55% lower than 2018 levels to put the world on the “least-cost pathway” to limiting global warming to below 2 degrees and 1.5 degrees, respectively.
Countries must triple the ambition of their Paris pledges to achieve the below 2 degrees goal and increase their targets fivefold to hit the more ambitious 1.5 degrees level.
THE PERSISTENT PARTISAN DIVIDE ON CLIMATE: Climate change is polarizing, even though a majority say the government must do more to address it.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults (67%) say the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change, according to Pew survey released Monday.
However, while Democrats overwhelmingly favor more government action (90% of them do, including Independents who lean Democratic), Republicans are divided.
Only a quarter of conservative Republicans (24%) want the federal government to do more on climate, compared to 65% of moderate or Liberal Republicans (including GOP-leaning Independents).
Pew’s survey, conducted Oct. 1 to Oct. 13 of this year, covered 3,627 U.S. adults.
Republicans are also divided by age and gender: A majority of young Republican adults ages 18 to 39 (52% of them) think the government is doing too little on climate, compared to 41% who agree with that among Republicans of Generation X and 31% of Baby Boomers.
Republican women (46%) also are more inclined than GOP men (34%) to think the government’s efforts on climate are insufficient.
This makes sense: Congressional Republicans have identified climate change as a vulnerability for members competing in swing, suburban districts, especially in terms of appealing to younger voters and women.
PERRY’S LAST ACT TO CURB RUSSIAN GAS: Energy Secretary Rick Perry spent his last official day Monday participating in a bilateral meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov at the White House, to push the Eastern European country to lessen its dependence on Russian gas.
It was a fitting end for Perry, who has prioritized decreasing Russia’s control over Europe’s energy supply. Perry is heading home to Texas for the holidays before officially leaving his post Dec. 1.
What gives with Bulgaria? Bulgaria is currently working to complete its stretch of the TurkStream pipeline that would transport Russian gas around Ukraine and through Turkey. Bulgaria relies on Russia for almost all its natural gas.
However, the Trump administration is encouraging Bulgaria to open alternatives by completing an interconnect for natural gas through Greece to Bulgaria, and wants to help bolster nuclear energy in the country.
The U.S. intends to send a technical team to Bulgaria to explore “the possibilities for further cooperation in different areas of energy, including nuclear,” by supporting the licensing and use of American fuel for the country’s only nuclear plant, Kozloduy.
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS: The next battleground for climate-related shareholder resolutions could very well be major U.S. banks.
Banks like JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America aren’t doing nearly enough to line up their investment portfolios with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, a coalition of investors led by shareholder advocate group As You Sow said Monday. The coalition filed shareholder resolutions Tuesday with those three banks, as well as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The coalition calls out JP Morgan in particular. The bank might be making high-profile promises to increase clean energy investments, but “the scale of the firm’s concurrent financial backing of fossil fuel companies undermines these commitments and increases risks for the company, investors, the economy, society and the planet,” said Holly Testa, director of shareowner engagement at First Affirmative Financial Network, one of the investors on the resolutions.
What they want: U.S. banks should have to explain how they intend to match up their lending activities with a goal to limit warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, the coalition says. They’re asking the banks to produce a report to outline discussing how they’ll meet that goal, what risks they have related to carbon-intensive lending, and how they will disclose the greenhouse gas footprint of their lending.
EPA ASSURES EVERYONE IT’S DOING ITS PART ON PFAS: The EPA is on it. That’s what Administrator Andrew Wheeler wants people to know about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that seem to be on everyone’s mind — even Hollywood.
But that doesn’t mean Wheeler supports everything Congress is suggesting to address the chemicals. The EPA administrator raised concerns about legislation in the House and Senate that would force the EPA to designate with a broad brush PFAS chemicals as hazardous or set drinking water limits for the substances.
“[W]hen you only focus on that, it could take resources away from other issues or problems that the water systems have diverted to just this,” Wheeler told ABC News in an interview. “And this may not be a huge problem in every community.”
The EPA is taking its own steps: The agency announced on Monday it will take comment on whether and how to add certain PFAS chemicals to pollution levels that facilities must report under the Toxic Release Inventory.
The step is near and dear to Wheeler. The EPA administrator started his career at the EPA as an employee for the Toxic Release Inventory during the George H.W. Bush administration.
LOS ANGELES’ OLYMPIC EFFORT ON ELECTRIC CARS: The California city is aiming to speed up its shift to electric vehicles.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled an amped-up version of its zero-emissions vehicle roadmap, setting a target for 30% of all vehicles on the road and 80% of vehicles sold in 2028 to be all-electric. The roadmap is part of a regional effort, along with California top air regulator Mary Nichols, to clean up the city’s air and climate pollution before it hosts the 2028 Olympic Games.
In addition to increasing sales of electric cars, the roadmap calls for switching at least 20% of trips in one-person vehicles to zero-emissions public transportation by 2028. Los Angeles also aims to make the I-710, the Hollywood Freeway, the country’s first zero-emissions “goods movement corridor.”
The Rundown
Utility Dive National Grid lifts gas moratorium following deal with New York
New York Times India’s ominous future: too little water, or far too much
Washington Post One city’s plan to combat climate change: Bulldoze homes, rebuild paradise
Huffington Post Green New Deal author wants to expand anti-corruption laws to cover climate
Calendar
TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 26
House and Senate are out for Thanksgiving recess
