EPA Offers $850 Million For Oil, Gas Projects to Reduce Methane Emissions

One sector – oil and natural gas – is responsible for almost one-third of warming from greenhouse gases, according to the EPA.

In an effort to cut methane pollution, the EPA and the Department of Energy announced on June 21 that they will fund $850 million worth of projects that can monitor, measure, quantify and reduce these emissions.

This action is addition to the administration’s nearly 100 actions in 2023, including the finalization of an EPA rule that will yield an 80% reduction in methane emissions from covered oil and gas facilities.  

This funding, which comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, is meant to specifically help small oil and natural gas operators by having them access technology that can reduce emissions. This program is part of an overall program, Methane Emissions Reduction Program.  

“Today, we’re building on strong standards and historic progress to cut methane pollution and protect communities across the country,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, in a statement. “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.” 

The primary objectives of this funding opportunity announcement are to: 

1.  Help small operators significantly reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations, using commercially available technology solutions for methane emissions monitoring, measurement, quantification and mitigation. 

2.  Accelerate the repair of methane leaks from low-producing wells and the deployment of early-commercial technology solutions to reduce methane emissions from new and existing equipment such as natural gas compressors, gas-fueled engines, associated gas flares, liquids unloading operations, handling of produced water and other equipment leakage. 

3.  Improve communities’ access to empirical data and participation in monitoring through multiple installations of monitoring and measurement technologies while establishing collaborative relationships between equipment providers and communities. 

4.  Enhance the detection and measurement of methane emissions from oil and gas operations at regional scale, while ensuring nationwide data consistency through the creation of collaborative partnerships. These partnerships will span the country’s oil and gas-producing regions and draw in oil and natural gas owners and operators, universities, environmental justice organizations, community leaders, unions, technology developers, Tribes, state regulatory agencies, non-governmental research organizations, federally funded research and development centers and DOE’s National Laboratories.  

Read more details of this funding opportunity.