Colorado already has methane limits tougher than U.S. proposal

Strict limits on methane emissions passed a year ago in Colorado mean the state’s energy producers will not be affected by the federal government’s new plan to crack down on the powerful greenhouse gas.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will follow through with plans to curb methane emissions from new oil and gas wells.

The administration’s target is to cut methane from oil and gas drilling by 40 to 45 percent by 2025, compared with 2012 levels. The move was not unexpected; officials had set the same goal in a preliminary blueprint in January.

Still, by moving forward with the official proposal, Obama is adding to a list of energy regulations that have drawn applause from environmentalists and ire from energy advocates.

Colorado’s efforts go even farther, applying methane controls to both new and existing wells. Last year, it became the first state to pass limits on the gas from wells.

“Our rules put people in position to meet any federal requirements,” said Will Allison, head of the state’s Air Pollution Control Division.

Colorado officials say federal authorities modeled the methane proposal on the state’s first-of-its-kind rules. Colorado’s regulations trim more than a third of air pollution from volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ozone and include methane. That’s about 92,000 tons a year.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said in statement that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is reviewing the proposed rule and will work closely with the oil and gas industry and the EPA.

“In Colorado, protecting public health and the environment, and promoting our energy industry are not mutually exclusive endeavors,” he said.

Methane, the key component of natural gas, tends to leak during oil and gas production. Although it makes up just a sliver of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, it is far more powerful than the more prevalent gas carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Some industry groups say Colorado’s methane rules have been costly and unfair to producers.

“We’ve got a failed experiment that is now being used as a model for the rest of the nation,” said Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance, a petroleum industry advocacy group.

“It’s going after a very small source of the emissions and doing it in a very expensive way.”

But state officials and environmental activists say Colorado shows that methane can be regulated in a cost-efficient way. They say Colorado’s largest oil and gas companies — Anadarko, Encana and Noble Energy — have signed on to the state methane plan.