The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed new measures aimed at reducing methane (CH4) emissions from the oil and gas sector to reach the target set in the Climate Action Plan to cut CH4 emissions by 40 to 45% by 2025, compared to 2012 levels. The EPA is proposing standards to find and repair methane leaks and to capture gas released during oil wells hydraulic fracturing (fracking) among others. New standards are expected to save 340,000 to 400,000 tons of methane in 2025, the equivalent of reducing 7.7 to 9 Mt of CO2, and to avoid the emission of 170,000 to 180,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in 2025 and of 1,900 to 2,500 tons of air toxics such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
Methane has a global warming potential more than 25 times greater than that of CO2 and is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the United States from human activities. Nearly 30% of those emissions come from oil production and the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas.
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