Methane Clips: January 17, 2024

 

3 Things To Know About The Methane Fee. “EPA recently offered new details on the fines oil and gas operators will pay next year for excess methane emissions. The new levy on leaky equipment was created 17 months ago in Democrats' signature climate law. But EPA's draft rule — released Friday — answered questions about how those thresholds would be calculated and when operators might be eligible for exemptions. The Inflation Reduction Act penalizes operators when their methane emissions top certain thresholds, with the revenue going to fund new efforts to rein in emissions of the planet-warming gas. Companies will start paying it next year for emissions they report in 2024. EPA will finalize its rule to implement the fee later this year.” [Politico, 1/17/24 (=)]

 

Team Upgrades Technology For Monitoring Methane Emissions. According to Phys.org, “Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have upgraded a highly precise technology designed to monitor emissions of methane, a critical greenhouse gas, and other trace gases, even in harsh field conditions. Measuring methane emissions and pinpointing their source is an important step toward reducing them—the goal of the Global Methane Pledge recently signed by more than 150 nations at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. NIST's upgraded emissions-monitoring technology allowed the research team to estimate methane emissions in a roughly 855 square kilometer (330 square mile) area of Northern Colorado for two months. A study describing their work is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.” [Phys.org, 1/16/24 (=)]