Colorado regulators have unanimously approved natural gas and oil emissions standards, increasing oversight on the state’s exploration and production (E&P) companies.
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) rules define how E&Ps will calculate greenhouse gas intensity and how to monitor operations. The rules are expected to provide an accurate ratio of a facility’s emissions over the amount of fuel produced.
The rules were created with input from the energy industry and environmentalist groups. The American Petroleum Institute (API) and Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) said in a joint statement that the regulations would allow the industry to “build on…ongoing innovation while preserving the flexibility needed to adopt emerging and evolving technology. The agreement reached…is rooted in technical expertise across academia, technology providers and industry, and will provide Colorado with a sound regulatory framework to verify greenhouse gas emissions.”
By 2025, upstream operations would be required to directly measure their emissions. Some operators would be required to use third-party, state-approved auditors.
AQCC plans to use the emissions inventory data and confirm the data using aerial and ground air monitoring. Regulators plan to upgrade the technology before the rule takes effect.
Colorado’s natural gas and oil industry “is on track” to reach the GHG intensity goals and reduce statewide emissions by 26% by 2025, API and COGA said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that E&Ps in northern Weld County may be held to more stringent air quality standards. The federal appeals court designated the county as a nonattainment area for failing to meet air pollution standards.
Coal Versus Natural Gas
The Colorado emissions protocols come as a recent study has found that natural gas leaks throughout the supply chain may be roughly equal to coal’s emissions. A peer reviewed study published in July in Environmental Research Letters found that gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as coal per MMBtu.
However, processed gas lacks the CO2-masking effects of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) in coal. SO2 has a short-lived “cooling effect,” slightly offsetting CO2’s warming effects, but the compound is an aerosol that “leads to other environmental and health concerns.”
“We find that the benefits of gas do not outweigh coal at certain methane leakage rates,” said the team of six researchers, many of whom work at RMI, formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Researchers recommended that the natural gas industry make greater use of public and private satellites, including Carbon Mapper, GHGSat, MethaneSat and NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation.
API’s Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs, told NGI, “The transition from coal to cleaner natural gas has helped the U.S. lead the world in reducing emissions.”
The U.S. natural gas and oil industry, he said, “is leading the world in advancing innovative technology to better detect and reduce methane emissions, and U.S. methane emissions intensity are among the lowest of any major-producing nation.”
According to the Energy Information Administration, the carbon intensity of the electric grid fell by 0.22 metric tons/MWh from 2005-2021, with 58% of that drop attributable to coal-to-natural gas switching.
