New Study Finds Hickenlooper Methane Rules Cut Colorado Oil and Gas Emissions by 70%

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper cheered new findings from the Environmental Defense Fund showing that methane rules Hickenlooper pioneered as governor reduced methane emissions fromColorado's oil and gas sector by a whopping 70% between 2010 and 2017.

Under Hickenlooper's leadership, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission brought together environmentalists and the oil and gas industry to establish the world's first methane regulations in 2014. Those regulations were used by President Obama as a model for national standards, which in turn formed the basis of the international methane pledge in 2021.

"Colorado was the first state to enact smart methane rules," said Hickenlooper. "The data proves they work, delivering cleaner air for our communities and making real progress in confronting the climate crisis."

"Under the leadership of then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, Colorado led the nation in tackling the methane problem by adopting the first set of standards to address emissions from oil and gas operations. Analyzing the satellite data indicates that emissions fell dramatically following the adoption of the 2014 rules," said Nini Gu, Senior Regulatory & Legislative Manager for the West Region. "Smart energy policy design and rigorous data collection are the key to a thriving climate and a thriving economy, in Colorado and beyond."

The findings are based on data collected by Japan's Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, also known as GOSAT, between 2010 and 2019. They are reinforced by independent aircraft studies over the Denver-Julesburg Basin that find similar downward trends in the basin's emissions intensity.

As senator, Hickenlooper has championed stronger federal methane rules modeled on Colorado's. In 2021, he led members of the Colorado congressional delegation in urging the EPA to strengthen methane regulations for the oil and gas sector. He helped negotiate and pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which created a $4.7 billion federal program to plug orphaned wells on Federal, State, and Tribal lands.

Hickenlooper has repeatedly pressed the EPA to improve methane emissions tracking and celebrated $162.3 million in loan guarantees from the Inflation Reduction Act to support the installation of a real time methane emissions monitoring network across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, and New Mexico.

The EDF study is available HERE.

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