The last major climate regulation of the Biden administration could be finalized next week.
EPA is due to release its final rule for the climate law’s methane fee, which has undergone White House review for more than two months. Next week’s U.N. climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, offer an opportunity to unveil the policy — and a last chance for President Joe Biden to showcase his efforts to rein in the climate superpollutant to a global audience.
The White House Office of Management and Budget’s website shows that the last stakeholder meeting on the rule is scheduled for Thursday. And the Biden EPA has made it a kind of annual tradition to debut methane policies at global climate confabs. The agency didn’t respond to calls for comment.
The agency released draft and final rules to curb methane from oil and gas operations — and beef up monitoring — at each of the past three U.N. climate summits in Glasgow, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dubai. Now, with Biden set to leave office in 10 weeks, the U.S. and China are convening a methane meeting next Tuesday on the sidelines of COP.
