Climate Action Plan

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By Chris Garrett, Daniel Brunton, Taiga Takahashi, Andrew Yancey, and Natalie Rogers

On October 29, 2014, the Fourth District Court of Appeal of California upheld the Sierra Club’s challenges to the County of San Diego’s (“County”) approval of a climate action plan (“CAP”) and related significance thresholds under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”).  In Sierra Club v. County of San Diego, No. D064243, 2014 WL 5465857 (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 29, 2014), the Court held that the County’s CAP did not ensure the necessary greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions reductions and that the County failed to meaningfully analyze the environmental impacts of the CAP.  This opinion was certified for publication on November 24, 2014.

By Joel Mack, Eli Hopson and Ben Lawless

On March 28, 2014 the White House announced its Methane Reduction Strategy 
(“MRS”) containing the broad outlines of a multi-agency strategy to reduce methane emissions 
from four major sources: the oil and gas industry, cattle and dairy farming, coal mining, and 
landfills. The MRS is part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, first announced by the 
White House in June 2013, and will utilize voluntary incentive-based programs as well as new 
regulatory measures under the executive branch’s existing regulatory authority. In addition, the 
MRS outlines plans to improve the quality of methane emission measurement and steps to reduce 
international methane emissions.
 The core of the MRS is the announcement of a series of voluntary and regulatory 
measures intended to reduce methane emissions from the four major sources of methane 
emissions: 
• Oil and Gas: The MRS detailed three steps to reduce methane emissions from 
the oil and gas industry: 1.) EPA will issue a series of technical white papers 
in 2014 to solicit input from technical experts to assess “several potentially 
significant sources of methane emissions” and determine whether to pursue 
further methane emission reductions from those sources; 2.) BLM will propose 
updated venting and flaring standards for oil and gas operations on public lands; 
and 3.) the Administration will work to identify additional “downstream” methane 
reduction opportunities. 
• Coal Mining: The Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) will issue an 
Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit input on the development of 
a program for the capture and sale, or disposal, of waste methane emitted from 
coal mines on Federal lands. 
• Landfills: EPA will propose more stringent methane emission standards for new 
landfills sometime in the summer of 2014. At the same time, EPA will solicit 
public comments on whether to update standards for existing landfills. EPA will 
also seek further emission reductions through the Landfill Methane Outreach 
Program, a voluntary program intended to partner with industry and state and 
local officials. 
• Agriculture: In consultation with the dairy industry, the Department of 
Agriculture, EPA and the Department of Energy will issue a “Biogas Roadmap” 
outlining voluntary strategies to hasten the adoption of methane digesters and 
other technologies to reduce GHG emissions from the dairy industry by 25 
percent by 2020. 
The MRS also included an outline of a plan to improve the ability to measure methane 
emissions across diverse sources and economic sectors. Specifically, the MRS calls for the 
development of new and improved measurement technologies, additional data collection and 
analysis for areas with high uncertainty, and enhancement of top-down modeling and monitoring 
based on direct measurement of atmospheric concentrations. 
Finally, the MRS sets out the Administration’s plans to reduce international methane 
emissions through two primary actions. First, the Administration will push for initiatives under 
the auspices of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (“CCAC”) to reduce landfilling in Africa, 
Asia and Latin America, reduce methane emissions from agriculture and livestock operations 
through best practices and improved policies and technologies, and help to launch the CCAC 
Oil and Gas Methane Partnership in 2014. Second, the Administration will work to leverage the 
U.S.’s technical expertise to reduce methane emissions through the Global Methane Initiative 
(“GMI”), a public-private initiative involving 43 partner countries, private industry, and 
multilateral organizations such as the World Bank. The GMI will focus on reductions in five 
key sectors: agriculture, coal mining, municipal solid waste, oil and gas systems, and municipal 
wastewater. 
Reactions to the MRS were mixed. A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute 
questioned the need for new regulation of fuel extraction, noting that the regulations could a 
“chilling effect” and that there “built-in incentive to capture [methane] emissions” due to the 
potential resale profit. Environmental groups were generally supportive. The President of the 
Environmental Defense Fund hailed the President’s strategy as “smart roadmap for taking on the 
biggest sources of [methane] emissions.” However, the Sierra Club emphasized that the MRS 
does not reduce methane emissions enough to stave off the negative impacts of climate change.

On March 28, 2014 the White House announced its Methane Reduction Strategy (“MRS”) containing the broad outlines of a multi-agency strategy to reduce methane emissions from four major sources: the oil and gas industry, cattle and dairy farming, coal mining, and landfills. The MRS is part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, first announced by the White House in June 2013, and will utilize voluntary incentive-based programs as well as new regulatory measures under the executive branch’s existing regulatory authority. In addition, the MRS outlines plans to improve the quality of methane emission measurement and steps to reduce international methane emissions.

Latham & Watkins is pleased to present a complimentary 60-minute webcast on Wednesday, July 24 at 9:00 am pacific/12:00 pm eastern. The webcast is presented by the Air Quality and Climate Change Practice and will address the following current air quality and climate change regulatory and policy updates:

  • The recent decision in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard case and its implications for the implementation of the LCFS 
  • Greenhouse gas emissions trading for airlines
  • How climate change issues are being handled by

…

By Janice Schneider, Andrea Hogan, and Adam Thomas

We analyzed the President Obama’s recent Memorandum aimed at modernizing and expanding the nation’s electric transmission grid on federal lands.[1] The memorandum, which also garnered a mention in the President’s newly announced Climate Action Plan, is another tool being used by President Obama to move the country towards the President’s goal of doubling domestic renewable electricity by 2020.