Don Santa, president and chief executive officer of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, today commented on a new Environmental Protection Agency final rule targeting methane emissions from new and modified natural gas facilities.
“INGAA, while disappointed the Environmental Protection Agency opted to proceed with regulation of methane emissions from new and modified gas facilities, is pleased that EPA listened to our concerns about the time frame for repairs at compressor stations.
“INGAA in its comments had argued that EPA’s proposed highly prescriptive repair criteria would have resulted in added methane emissions and decreased service reliability.
“Still, we must review the 600-page final rule closely to determine whether, in practice, EPA’s changes to the proposed rule will effectively minimize the adverse consequences that concerned INGAA’s members.
“INGAA remains very concerned about EPA’s insistence on quarterly monitoring at compressor stations. We are disappointed that the value of EPA’s decision to allow a more economic leak-detection method (Method 21) was undermined by the very low leak threshold of 500 ppm.
“The rule does nothing to integrate new scientific data on methane emissions from this sector, which clearly shows that a very few large leaks account for the vast majority of emissions. Rather, EPA accepted a Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) approach, which is much more costly and less effective than the Directed Inspection and Maintenance (DI&M) approach proposed by INGAA.”
