API calls EPA's latest methane inventory "seriously flawed"

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Apr 19, 2016, 02:38 ET

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- EPA's greenhouse gas inventory is seriously flawed and inconsistent with previous EPA reports and other scientific research, Kyle Isakower, API vice president of regulatory and economic policy, told reporters in a conference call.

"We're concerned the administration is putting politics ahead of science by turning the numbers on their head," Isakower said. "EPA's inventory has consistently shown a downward trend in emissions even as oil and natural gas production has soared. Somehow, in this year's inventory, using a flawed new methodology, EPA has erased that progress from its historic data.

"Innovations and leadership by the oil and natural gas industry have caused emissions to go down significantly. We are spending more than ever on reducing emissions, including the green completions the industry invented to capture methane emissions. EPA now requires these completions for all new wells.

"Since 2000, U.S. oil and natural gas industry's investments in zero- and low-carbon technologies have totaled $90 billion, more than twice the next largest industry sector (at $38 billion) and almost as much as the federal government (at $110 billion).

"EPA's prior inventories reflect these investments and the industry's leadership in reducing methane and other emissions. It doesn't make sense that all of a sudden those reductions would stop. Yet, that's what EPA's new figures suggest. We think these new figures are not an accurate reflection of science or reality."

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API's more than 650 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation's energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 30 million Americans.

SOURCE American Petroleum Institute