Canada, U.S. agree to cut methane emissions from oil and gas industry by almost half by 2025

President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced steps to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas wells, a move meant to underscore their resolve for combat climate change.

Read the U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership

Canada and also the U.S. are agreeing to reduce methane emissions from gas and oil by as much as 45 per cent below 2012 amounts by 2025, according to a joint statement through the countries issued Thursday, as Trudeau meets Obama in Washington.

Oil and gas companies, whose profits are suffering due to a stop by prices, will probably aim to derail the program.

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Both Trudeau and Obama have described global warming as among the world’s most pressing challenges. The announcement underscores the extent that an outgoing president as well as an incoming pm who are ideologically aligned are wanting to address regions of mutual interest.

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The two leaders are also expected to talk over more prickly issues, including security-induced congested zones at the U.S.- Canadian border and Canada’s halting participation within the bombing campaign against Islamic State. Trudeau is going to be treated to some state dinner, the very first for a Canadian prime minister since 1997.

Obama sees himself within the younger Trudeau, 44, whose ascent in Canadian politics was built on pledges of hope and change as well as an inclusive vision of his country, and whose children are roughly exactly the same age as Obama’s when he was elected in 2008. Trudeau told Bloomberg News in an interview earlier this year that he shares “an excellent compatibility at this time with regards to the issues we’re looking at” with Obama.

Methane Rules

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency within the coming month plans to release draft requirements to compel energy companies to supply details about the emissions produced along a series of gas and oil activities, including production, transmission, processing and storage, based on the person familiar with the program.

The EPA is already finishing a guide that would require oil and gas companies to upgrade equipment and check out methane leaks at new and modified wells. Thursday’s announcement that the federal government will even take a look at existing equipment may assuage concerns from environmentalists who say cutting leaks at new wells isn’t enough to meet Obama’s carbon-cutting pledges.

If the EPA is not able to complete work on its methane regulation prior to the end from the Obama presidency, a Republican successor likely would withdraw the rule.

The government in Canada’s Alberta province is considering stricter methane rules for new equipment, though they likely won’t be as prescriptive as U.S. regulations, based on Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Bernard Chen.

The planned U.S.-Canada methane announcement was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

About 25 % of worldwide warming is related to methane emissions, said Mark Brownstein, vice president in the Climate and Energy Program in the Environmental Defense Fund. Methane is 25 to 34 times as potent as carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere over a century.

“There’s hardly anything else that may obtain that type of dramatic impact on the speed of warming today in this technologically feasible and cost-effective way as reducing gas and oil methane emissions,” Brownstein said. “The chance here is enormous, also it speaks to the value of what both Canada and the United States are committed to.”

Arctic Management

Conservationists will also be watching for Obama and Trudeau to discuss control over the Arctic, including energy development and shipping in the area. That could incorporate a crackdown on sooty black carbon, which darkens ice and hastens melting at the top of the world. One option could be limits on sulfur content in ship fuel north from the Arctic Circle.

Trudeau is bringing with him to Washington his fisheries minister, Hunter Tootoo, an aboriginal Canadian who represents the district of Nunavut, a thinly populated and developed northern territory.

“As an Inuk, I’m keenly conscious of the problems within the North,” he explained within an interview. “We’re around the front lines of climate change and we’re feeling the impacts from it already.”

Canada’s contributions towards the combat the Islamic State militant group have caused some heartburn for the White House. Trudeau withdrew Canada’s six fighter jets from the coalition bombing Islamic State in February, while increasing the number of Canadian troops helping to train Iraqi forces fighting the group.

Trade is another difficult problem for Obama and Trudeau. The Canadian leader remains noncommittal around the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade deal between the U.S. and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries, including Canada, that Obama views like a cornerstone of his legacy.

The pact was hammered in the middle of Canada’s election. Canada meanwhile hopes to enact its own free trade agreement with Europe after revising it to avoid fears that corporations would be over-empowered, an issue which has stalled trade negotiations between your U.S. and the Eu.
Bloomberg.com

U.S.-canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, And Arctic Leadership