During a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee hearing last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned EPA Administrator Michael Regan about methane emissions.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 We've been visited by a lot of young people in the audience here today, Mr. Administrator,
00:06 and great to see all of them.
00:08 They have probably the biggest stake in what we're talking about here today.
00:11 Are we going to have a planet or are they going to have a planet to grow up on and grow
00:15 old on?
00:16 And will they have the opportunity to have good jobs to support themselves and their
00:19 families as the rest of us have?
00:21 So we welcome all of you.
00:23 And with that in mind, let me say to Senator Whitehouse, welcome.
00:26 It's great to see you.
00:27 Thank you, Chairman.
00:29 Mr. Administrator, what time frame can you commit to for the existing power plants part
00:35 of the power plant rule, the existing gas-fired power plant?
00:40 Yes.
00:41 We're working on that process right now.
00:43 And we've engaged our stakeholders to start that formal process.
00:47 And so we're going to move as quickly as possible.
00:50 Can you commit to any end point at all?
00:52 Well, it's too early for me to just throw out a date.
00:55 So what I'd like to do is be able to provide you a date that is grounded in the facts of
00:59 how the process is going to be designed and going.
01:01 We have given you authority to regulate methane emissions.
01:09 And we have required in the law that you use, and I'm quoting the law here, "empirical data,"
01:16 which means that you're supposed to actually measure it, correct?
01:20 Yes.
01:21 That's what empirical means.
01:23 Has EPA historically underestimated methane leakage from the fossil fuel sector?
01:29 Not just EPA, but I think most have underestimated methane.
01:32 But EPA for sure has.
01:34 Yes.
01:35 And EPA did so because it relied on industry reporting in order to come to its numbers,
01:41 correct?
01:42 I wouldn't say solely on industry reporting, but I think that industry reporting informed
01:45 our measurements, yes.
01:47 Yes.
01:48 And the result was underreporting.
01:50 Now in 2018, which is five plus years ago, EDF first reported that EPA's methane numbers
02:02 were too low.
02:04 EDF reported likely methane leak numbers that were 60% higher than your GHG inventory numbers.
02:14 Two years later, Penn State reported further, as the science developed, and said that methane
02:19 leaks were two times higher than EPA was relying on.
02:27 Stanford last year has put out its own research showing that methane leakage is likely three
02:35 times higher than EPA has been relying on.
02:44 One of the things that we asked you to do was to acquire satellite data, and we appropriated
02:51 money to do that.
02:52 What is the status of EPA's acquisition of satellite data?
02:54 Do you presently have access to satellite data for methane leaks?
03:00 I do know that we have started a process to acquire.
03:05 We are leveraging the acquisition of satellite data from some of our sister agencies like
03:10 NASA and others.
03:11 Like NASA.
03:12 Do you have actual access to satellite data?
03:13 I will have to get back to you on that specific timeline.
03:17 What I can say is, and you will see this in the actions that we have taken, as we use
03:21 the resources that you have given us, and we put out this call for competitions to look
03:27 at the best technologies, you will see that satellite data is specified as something that
03:32 we want to consider in our acquisition, along with our Federal family, to be sure that we
03:37 are all working with the same numbers.
03:39 At a minimum, satellite data puts up a pretty good flag for further inquiry about methane
03:46 leaks that you can do through drones, aircraft, or on-ground measuring, correct?
03:51 Correct.
03:52 Are you currently deploying that satellite information to trigger those further investigative
04:01 methods?
04:02 We are looking at all the options above.
04:03 Okay.
04:04 There is a point where looking at it has to end and doing it has to begin.
04:08 I will say you have cited 2018, 2019, 2020.
04:11 I think there were a number of years where the agency was prevented from pursuing the
04:17 pursuit of climate change gases.
04:20 With the resources that you all have appropriated since 2021, and under this administration,
04:25 I will say that we have moved as aggressively as we possibly can and will continue to do
04:30 so.
04:32 On the enforcement side, some time ago, the administration announced that it was putting
04:43 together a methane task force, which as a proposition makes a lot of sense because if
04:51 you have satellite data that points at methane leaks and allows for further investigative
04:57 methods to be deployed or if it is reliable enough, simply pursued on that basis, you
05:04 might want to be talking to the Department of Justice about what their capabilities are
05:09 with respect to enforcement.
05:11 You might want to be talking to the Department of Interior about what they as landlords and
05:15 permitors can do to push those leaks.
05:22 What is your view right now of that methane task force, how often it meets, how often
05:28 your team meet with Interior and DOJ people, whether there is an actual sort of war room
05:35 type setup for the task force to be operating through in a cooperative way?
05:40 I will say that when the President stepped out in 2021 and cited methane and the methane
05:45 pledge as priorities, all of the agencies have been working to focus on this.
05:51 When we look at the methane regulation, the most aggressive methane regulation this agency
05:56 has ever finalized, that set the new bar for some of the ways we could enforce these actions.
06:03 There is a constant conversation and relationship, very close relationship with the Department
06:08 of Justice on looking at how we enforce our regulations.
06:11 But with Interior, as well as DOE and others, we have all received resources from the Inflation
06:17 Reduction Act.
06:18 As we look at how we develop those grants, use the information, use the data and the
06:23 technology, we are trying to be sure that we are leveraging all of our resources together
06:27 in this whole of government approach.
06:29 It does take coordination, but I think the development of enforcement, regulations and
06:34 these grant programs is being done in concert with not just DOJ from an enforcement standpoint,
06:40 but DOE and Interior and others as well.
06:43 My time has expired.