Despite adverse publicity criticizing the livestock industry for methane emission by ruminants and from hog waste, the oil and gas industries are prodigious generators of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.  Emissions from wells and pipeline pumping stations are essentially preventable with investment in installations, maintenance and supervision.  For decades it has been cheaper for industry to flare gas and release methane than prevent environmental contamination. 

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act funds the Emissions Reduction Program incorporating a proposed waste emissions charge initiative.  The proposed rule would enforce compliance with methane standards established by Congress.

The rule will apply to both new and existing operations and will be implemented using $1 billion from the Department of Energy to limit release from low-producing, conventional wells throughout the oil and gas sector.  The proposed rule would charge oil and gas facilities reporting release of more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent per year.  The sliding scale of charges should encourage remedial action reducing methane release.  The need for an EPA rule on methane emission is clearly recognition that the oil and gas industries are polluters diverting attention from beef, dairy and pork production.