Oil and natural gas drillers, environmentalists and other stakeholders will have two months to weigh in on a proposed rule from the US Environmental Protection Agency setting new limits on air emissions from exploration and production activities, including hydraulic fracturing.
EPA will publish the proposed rule in Tuesday's Federal Register, launching a 60-day comment period for the public to weigh in, according to a pre-publication version of the rule posted online Monday.
The Clean Air Act rule aims to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide and air toxics from multiple types of oil and natural gas operations. EPA says it will reduce VOC emissions by 95% from fracked gas wells by requiring drillers to capture gas that currently escapes into the air.
For the oil and gas sector as a whole, EPA says the rule will reduce VOC emissions by 25%, air toxics by 30% and methane by 26%. EPA estimates that complying with the rule will cost $754 million by 2015, but it said that companies would be able to sell the gas captured at fracking operations for about $783 million, creating a net benefit of $29 million.
EPA announced the details of the rule last month, under the terms of a court settlement with environmental groups; it aims to finalize the rule by February 2012.
At the time of the announcement, the American Petroleum Institute questioned EPA's cost-benefit analysis and said it would conduct its own study; the oil and gas trade association also asked EPA to delay finalizing the rule by at least six months.
