United States – The U.S. government launched on Friday new competitive bidding, which will end on August 26, for USD 850 million in grants for the enhancement of small oil as well as natural gas producers in tracking and curbing methane emissions, which is a significant aspect of President Joe Biden’s anti-leakage plan of methane.
IMPORTANCE
The financing will be provided through the administration’s marquee climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. It will target supporting the nation’s smaller oil and natural gas producers to mitigate methane emissions and gain access to methane abatement technologies. Regarding membership, it will be available to the industry, academicians, non-governmental organizations, Native American tribes, and state and local governments, as reported by Reuters.
CONTEXT
A few more nimble, independent U.S. oil and gas operators had expressed themselves dissatisfied with the Environmental Protection Agency’s fresh methane standards aimed at hundreds of thousands of existing wells across the country because they shift costs to low-producing wells and the agency’s proposed methane fee on producers.
KEY QUOTE
“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,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, as reported by Reuters.
IN NUMBERS
Fossil fuel production for the oil and gas industry is soly responsible for 30 percent of methane emissions in the country and is viewed by the Biden administration as an industry to reduce emissions to fight against climate change. As it stands today, there are above 100 countries that have assigned various commitments of lowering methane emission by thirty per cent by the year 2030 starting from the year 2020. Another study conducted in 2022 indicated as these wells provide only 6 percent of the total production of oil and gases in the United States, they release fifty percent of methane emissions – from all wells – in the country.