Climate Change

The Environmental Enforcement Section enforces our nation’s clean air laws in federal court. That work reduces emissions of various pollutants, some of which are greenhouse gases. A priority area for enforcement is the oil and gas sector, including upstream production facilities, such as wells, storage tanks, and flares; midstream gas processing plants; and refineries. When not properly designed and maintained, oil production facilities can illegally vent volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants into the atmosphere. The Section has brought lawsuits against companies that operate hundreds of production facilities, requiring them to design facilities with appropriate emission controls, rigorous maintenance protocols, and enhanced monitoring.

Gas processing plants remove impurities from natural gas before it is sent to residential and industrial consumers. Federal law contains detailed requirements to ensure that the processing equipment does not leak and, if it does leak, that those leaks are repaired expeditiously. The Section has also brought multiple lawsuits against those who violate these laws and obtained court orders requiring them to implement enhanced leak detection and repair procedures.

Petroleum refineries are required to install and operate extensive pollution control equipment to minimize emissions. The Section has brought lawsuits against refineries across the country requiring them to upgrade their pollution control equipment. Taken together, these actions have brought hundreds of facilities into compliance with clean air laws, greatly reducing emissions of methane (a global warming pollutant), volatile organic compounds (a component of smog), and hazardous air pollutants. Operators have also paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines as a result of the violations.

Methane: Methane is both a hazardous substance and a potent greenhouse gas. The principal component of natural gas, methane is extremely flammable and poses a serious fire hazard if accidentally released. It is colorless and odorless, and it can act as an asphyxiant by displacing oxygen in the atmosphere. An accidental release poses risks of distant ignition or flashback and can cause vapor cloud explosions. After it is released into the atmosphere, methane contributes to the destabilization of the global climate. One ton of methane in the atmosphere has about 80-times the warming impact of one ton of carbon dioxide, and it contributes to the creation of ground-level ozone, which is another greenhouse gas.

Methane is commonly emitted from oil and natural gas systems, landfills, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes. Together with its agency partners, the section works to identify and address illegal methane releases—including methane “super-emitter” events—and to craft comprehensive remedies to redress the public for harms to its health and welfare that result from such pollution events. More information on super-emitter events is available on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.