A bill aimed at limiting methane emissions from oil and gas operations has been introduced by U.S. Representative Diana DeGette. The bill would require oil & gas producers to capture 85% of all gas produced on public lands within three years of enactment, and 99% of all gas produced on such lands within five years of enactment. "It also would ban venting of any natural gas on public lands, and prohibit methane flaring at any new wells established 2 years after the bill is passed," DeGette said. “If we’re going to be serious about fixing the climate crisis, we have to be serious about curbing the release of methane into the atmosphere,” DeGette continued.
The legislation would reinstate two 2016 rules enacted by the Obama administration: the US Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Waste Prevention Rule, limiting the amount of methane oil and gas producers operating on tribal or public lands could release; and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards, setting similar limits for any new or modified oil & gas wells in the U.S.