‘No Brainer’ Methane Rule Touts New EPA Approach to Carbon Costs

A new supplemental rule that would strengthen oil and gas methane standards puts added pressure on companies with leaky wells, using a new estimate of the economic costs of carbon dioxide that’s significantly higher than the White House’s temporary social cost of carbon metric.

President Joe Biden touted the new proposed rule on Nov. 11 at the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, tightening up methane standards from oil and gas wells that environmentalists have criticized as too weak to address an outsize source of greenhouse gas pollution.

The methane proposal is a “no-brainer,” according to University ...