Boulder County Officials Issue Warning After Proposed EPA Changes

BOULDER, CO — Boulder County Public Health is warning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed changes to oil and gas emission limits will put public health at risk. The EPA has proposed removing requirements that oil and gas producers limit the amount of methane released from oil and gas sources.

The EPA’s own analysis estimates that the proposed change would cause a nationwide increase of 370,000 tons of methane, 10,000 tons of volatile organic compounds or ozone precursors, and 300 tons of hazardous air pollutants between 2019 and 2025.

Cindy Copeland, an Air Quality Specialist for Boulder County Public Health, said emissions limits need to be strengthened, not weakened.

“Even in Colorado, with oil and gas regulations that are generally more stringent than EPA’s current regulations, oil and gas pollution is still negatively impacting the air we all breathe and our future on the planet," she said.

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Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that plays a major role in climate change. The negative climate impacts of the increases are estimated by EPA to cost $8.1 million per year through 2025.

Boulder County’s voluntary oil and gas inspections have identified a gas release or leak with an infrared camera at 82 percent of sites inspected, health officials said. A total of 63 percent of the sites with leaks experienced them in multiple calendar years, and about 54 percent experienced more than one leak in at least one calendar year.

The University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research conducted an air monitoring study that showed a strong correlation between air quality in the area and the oil and gas development in areas northeast of Boulder County.

“This proposal is putting public health at risk and increasing our community’s exposure to the devastating threats of climate change. If enacted, it would turn a blind eye to emissions of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases,” said Elise Jones, Chair, on behalf of the Boulder Board of County Commissioners. “Boulder County will continue its longstanding work to aggressively monitor and limit these emissions that threaten our health and our climate.”

The EPA said the proposed changes would save the industry millions of dollars in compliance costs each year. EPA’s regulatory impact analysis estimates that the proposed amendments would save the oil and natural gas industry $17-$19 million a year, for a total of $97-$123 million from 2019 through 2025.

“EPA’s proposal delivers on President Trump’s executive order and removes unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a media release. “The Trump Administration recognizes that methane is valuable, and the industry has an incentive to minimize leaks and maximize its use. Since 1990, natural gas production in the United States has almost doubled while methane emissions across the natural gas industry have fallen by nearly 15%. Our regulations should not stifle this innovation and progress.”

In its primary proposal, the agency would remove sources in the transmission and storage segment of the oil and gas industry from regulation. In an alternative proposal, EPA would rescind the methane emissions limitations without removing from regulation any sources from the transmission and storage segment of the industry.