Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a “supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking,” calling for comments on air pollution standards for control of methane emissions from new and existing facilities in the oil and natural gas industry. See 87 Fed. Reg. 74,702 (Dec. 6, 2022). Among those standards are specific rules concerning “super-emitter” events, events with emissions of more than 100 kilograms (about 6,400 cubic feet) of methane per hour. The EPA assesses that these events account for about half the methane emitted by the industry.

Coincidentally, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued an order on Dec. 8 reacting to a release from a well connected to a natural gas storage field in Cambria County. The well apparently released natural gas to the atmosphere for two weeks in November.