US wants more methane testing at coal mines

OREANDA-NEWS. December 29, 2015. Coal mines could soon face tougher requirements for monitoring their methane emissions as part of a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effort to improve the accuracy of its national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory.

EPA wants underground coal mines starting in 2018 to report how much methane they vented to the atmosphere every month, rather than being allowed to rely on methane emissions data that federal mine inspectors collect each quarter to protect worker safety. EPA said methane data from the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is not sufficiently reliable.

EPA began requiring underground coal mines to start reporting their greenhouse gas emissions in 2011. The data contribute to the agency's GHG inventory, an annual database that the US uses to track emissions from large industries and demonstrate compliance with international obligations to address climate change.

But EPA on 21 December proposed to increase the stringency of GHG reporting for underground coal mines. The regulation would require those mines to collect their own methane data every month with standardized tests. EPA wants to prevent mines from using MSHA data, which it worries can be inaccurate because sampling can occur in different locations in each mine. Mine inspectors also use different sampling techniques that can undermine accuracy.

EPA estimates that about half of the 125 underground mines that are required to report GHG emissions data now use MSHA data. The agency estimates the new testing requirements will cost each affected coal mine about \\$28,000 during the first year, after which costs would fall to nearly \\$15,000/yr.

Environmentalists in 2010 tried to force EPA to begin regulating methane emissions from coal mines because of concerns over endangering public health. But EPA in 2013 rejected that request after finding emissions from coal mines only represented 1pc of US GHG emissions. EPA at the time said regulating power plants was a higher priority but left open the possibility it could one day regulate emissions from coal mines.

EPA plans to finalize the new methane reporting regulation in 2016 after taking public comment.