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Coverage of energy that moves beyond polarized arguments and emotional debate to explore the points of tension, the tradeoffs and opportunities, and the very human consequences of energy policy, production, use and innovation.Inside Energy is a collaboration of seven public media outlets in the nation's energy epicenter: Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota.

Methane, VOCs The Target Of Colorado's New Regulations

Dan Boyce
/
Inside Energy
Gary Graham with Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates compares how methane emissions at drilling sites can be seen with infrared technology.

Starting in May, new regulations begin to go into effect in Colorado to cap methane emissions from oil and gas drilling sites. These regulations could prove to be a model for the rest of the country.

The measures are also groundbreaking because of the rare collaboration between industry, environmentalists and state leaders which led to the rules.

The crackdown focuses on so-called “fugitive emissions” from the storage tanks on oil and gas sites. These emissions consist of methane and a bunch of other baddies known as “volatile organic compounds” (VOCs) which can lead to the formation of ozone. A recently released report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that ozone levels in parts of Colorado were far higher than anticipated.

“[It’s] as simple as tightening a valve or replacing a part, I mean these are not complicated fixes,” says Doug Hock, a spokesman for Encana, one of the oil and gas companies that helped craft the new methane regs.

Proponents say the rules are good for the environment and they say the companies stand to profit from selling the gases they capture, making back the money they spent fixing the leaks. Many are calling that a win-win, but economist Alan Krupnick is not so sure.

“If it’s so profitable to do that, to capture this methane, why aren’t the companies doing it now,” says economist Alan Krupnick, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future.

“They’re doing this to improve their image,” Krupnick says of the industry.

The state of Colorado is also on board. Will Allison, the head of Colorado’s Air Pollution Division, calls the implementation of the new regulations significant, in part, because of what he describes as the intense approach leading up to this point.

“[There were] five days of hearings, back-to-back-to-back in front of our air quality control commission,” says Allison of a process that consisted of meetings, drafts, and compromises that stretched on for more than a year.

In November 2013, though, they reached consensus. Oil and gas companies have to fix leaks and capture 95 percent of emissions. The rules gradually take effect over the next couple of years.

Dan Boyce moved to the Inside Energy team at Rocky Mountain PBS in 2014, after five years of television and radio reporting in his home state of Montana. In his most recent role as Montana Public Radio’s Capitol Bureau Chief, Dan produced daily stories on state politics and government.
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