In his role as a field advocate for Earthworks, Andrew Klooster often visits oil and gas facilities. Although most of his work focuses on Colorado, he has also gone to sites in New Mexico and other parts of the western United States. During these visits, he uses optical gas imaging to look for leaking methane.

“I think I can say with quite a bit of confidence that no matter where I’ve conducted this work and looked at oil and gas—no matter the basin, the operator or the state regulatory framework that’s currently in place or not in place—I’ve observed methane pollution due to leaks, due to malfunctions, due to inefficient equipment,” he said during a press call on Monday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule on Saturday that aims to curb methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The announcement came during the COP 28 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Environmental advocates like Klooster say the new rule is an important step forward in addressing climate change.

“It’s really important that we’re setting this national standard because we really need to give states and communities an opportunity to hold (the oil and gas industry) accountable,” he said.

Darin Schroeder, the legal and regulatory director for methane at Clean Air Task Force, said the EPA rule places the first nationwide limits on existing sources in the oil and gas sector.

He said operators can use existing tools and techniques to meet the new standards.

“Once (the methane rules) are fully implemented they’ll provide crucial climate and health benefits, particularly for communities that live and work nearby oil and gas development,” he said.

While Schroeder said the rule helps address methane pollution, he added that “it’s just a passing of the baton to the next stage of the race.”

“For communities to realize the benefits this rule can achieve, EPA now has to make sure that it not just implements it, but enforces it,” he said.

Protecting frontline communities

“Our communities are surrounded by operating wells,” said Joseph Hernandez, an Indigenous energy organizer for the nonprofit group NAVA Education Project. “Our communities deserve protection from their emissions.”

Hernandez is a member of the Navajo Nation and his family has an allotment in the eastern agency of the reservation where much of the oil and gas production is taking place.

He said the EPA rule will cut both methane and harmful pollutants that impact the health and safety of frontline and tribal communities.

Celerah Hewes, an Albuquerque resident who is also a national field manager for the group Moms Clean Air Force, said in a statement that the finalized rule is a “huge moment in the fight to protect our communities from the health impacts of oil and gas methane pollution.”

Hewes said states like New Mexico and Colorado have strong rules regulating methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors, but many people live in states without strong methane regulations.  

“This EPA rule is one of the best levers we have to quickly and significantly reduce methane pollution across the US, slow the rate of climate change and help clean up the air to protect children’s health,”  she said in a press release. 

Related: New study looks at the health costs, impacts of oil and gas pollution

By cutting methane emissions, the oil and gas sector will also reduce other harmful pollutants that can impact frontline communities.

The rule requires the oil and gas industry to reduce methane emissions by installing pollution control equipment, but it provides flexibility in the type of technologies that are used. These could be aerial screening, sensor networks and satellites that help operators find and repair leaks. It will also eliminate routine venting and flaring and establish standards for reducing emissions from high-emitting equipment including controllers, pumps and storage tanks.

By using third-party expertise in remote sensing, the Super Emitter Program will be able to detect large methane releases or leaks. These super emitter events are responsible for about half of the methane released from the oil and gas sector.

States can use existing programs for limiting methane emissions and have two years to submit their plans to the EPA for approval.

The rule builds upon previous proposed rules announced in 2021 and 2022, including one that the Independent Petroleum Association of America says could result in the closure of 300,000 marginal wells. The IPAA says those wells are “essential to our country’s energy production.”

New Mexico’s role 

When it comes to submitting the state plans to the EPA, New Mexico is a step ahead of many other states as it has some of the strongest methane rules in the country. Many groups say the state’s leadership informed the EPA’s rulemaking.

The federal government worked closely with the state when drafting the rules.

““New Mexico embarked on drafting our oil and gas rules at a time when the United States’ climate leadership was lagging,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Saturday in a statement.

She said the U.S. is now leading once again when it comes to climate. 

“We are proud to have laid the foundation for this national rule, which will not only reduce emissions, but spur innovation and economic development across the country,” the governor said.      

Since New Mexico adopted its rules, methane emissions have reduced 55 percent and the use of routine venting and flaring has reduced by 70 percent, according to the governor’s office.

In some ways, the federal rules are similar to what New Mexico implemented. 

“It does seem like EPA did kind of follow New Mexico’s lead here in some key respects,” Schroeder said.

But, he said the EPA did not go as far as the state did when it comes to routine flaring of gas. New Mexico fully banned that practice. The EPA rules do not go that far, but do prevent routine flaring from new oil and gas wells.

He said the EPA “took a step forward towards meeting what New Mexico has done,” however in other aspects like leak detection and repair, the EPA rules are fairly consistent with New Mexico’s.

Schroeder did acknowledge that he has not been able to do a line by line comparison of the EPA and New Mexico rules, in part because the EPA rules released over the weekend consist of nearly 1,700 pages.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat representing New Mexico, led a group of Congress members in sending a letter to the EPA in February supporting strong methane rules.

“The EPA is restoring responsible controls on methane pollution – a leading contributor to climate change – and protecting the health of our communities,” he said in a statement on Saturday. “Finalizing these strengthened methane standards at the EPA is one of the most powerful steps that we can take to slow climate change and make the air cleaner for children and seniors. I’m grateful to the EPA for heeding our calls to get this done.”

Major oil and gas companies announce plans to cut emissions

In addition to the U.S. announcing new methane rules, 50 oil and gas companies committed to taking steps to cut methane emissions during the COP 28 summit. Those 50 companies are responsible for about 40 percent of the oil and gas production in the world. 

The Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp described the pledge to reduce methane pollution to about 0.2 percent in production operations by 2030 as “an ambitious but absolutely achievable target.”

To get there, the companies will need to eliminate routine venting and flaring. It will also result in a reduction of 80 to 90 percent methane emissions from each company.

Some of those companies include Shell, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and BP.

ExxonMobil says it plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emission from unconventional operated assets in the Permian Basin by 2030 and will also eliminate routine flaring from upstream assets such as wells by 2030.

Cutting emissions requires monitoring for leaks and rapidly fixing those sources of emissions.

The company says it plans to use “an array of leading-edge technologies” including airplane surveys, ground-based monitors and high-altitude balloons to detect and curb emissions.