The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed steep new fees on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, escalating a crackdown on the fossil fuel industry’s planet-warming pollution.
The proposed rule represents one of the biggest sticks in a White House climate strategy that has so far dangled carrots. President Biden’s signature climate law, the [Inflation Reduction Act](https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/manchin-schumer-climate-deal/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3), offers generous financial rewards for businesses that reduce their emissions, but it provides few punishments for companies that fail to do so.
The exception is the [Methane Emissions Reduction Program](https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/methane-emissions-reduction-program), which levies a fee on wasteful methane emissions from large oil and gas facilities. The fee starts at $900 per metric ton of emissions in 2024, increasing to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026 and thereafter.
The EPA proposal lays out how the fee will be implemented, including how the charge will be calculated. It comes as policymakers around the world increasingly focus on curbing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
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The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed steep new fees on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, escalating a crackdown on the fossil fuel industry’s planet-warming pollution.
The proposed rule represents one of the biggest sticks in a White House climate strategy that has so far dangled carrots. President Biden’s signature climate law, the [Inflation Reduction Act](https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/manchin-schumer-climate-deal/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3), offers generous financial rewards for businesses that reduce their emissions, but it provides few punishments for companies that fail to do so.
The exception is the [Methane Emissions Reduction Program](https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/methane-emissions-reduction-program), which levies a fee on wasteful methane emissions from large oil and gas facilities. The fee starts at $900 per metric ton of emissions in 2024, increasing to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026 and thereafter.
The EPA proposal lays out how the fee will be implemented, including how the charge will be calculated. It comes as policymakers around the world increasingly focus on curbing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Long considered a climate super-pollutant, methane does not linger in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, but it is far more effective at trapping heat — [roughly 80 times more potent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/02/03/cracking-down-methane-ultra-emitters-is-quick-way-combat-climate-change-researchers-find/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) in its first decade. It is [responsible for roughly a third](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environmnet/2022/11/11/methane-regulation-epa-cop27-egypt/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) of global warming today, and the oil and gas industry accounts for about 14 percent of the world’s annual methane emissions, [according to estimates from the International Energy Agency](https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023/understanding-methane-emissions).
At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Dubai in December, EPA Administrator Michael Regan[ announced final standards](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/02/methane-emissions-greenhouse-gas-oil-epa/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10) to limit methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations. Fossil fuel companies that comply with these standards will be exempt from the new fee.
Read the full story here, and skip the paywall with email registration: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/12/methane-fee-epa-climate/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/12/methane-fee-epa-climate/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Why link a paywalled site WaPo?
Maybe the government should stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry so we can save the planet and move on. Just an idea.