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GLASGOW – The Biden administration plans to announce heavy regulation on Tuesday methane, a powerful greenhouse gas emitted by oil and gas operations, which can heat the atmosphere 80 times faster than carbon dioxide in the short term.

For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to limit methane from nearly one million existing oil and gas rigs in the United States. The federal government previously had rules aimed at preventing methane leakage from oil and gas wells built since 2015, but were canceled by the Trump administration. Administration aides said Mr Biden plans to restore and strengthen them.

Mr Biden is in Glasgow this week for the United Nations climate summit. where is it called convincing other countries to reduce emissions from fossil fuels that warm the planet to dangerous levels.

The methane announcement came as Mr Biden faced intense international and domestic pressure to show that the United States, the country that pumps the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, is serious about mitigating climate change.

Mr. Biden set an aggressive target to reduce emissions produced by the United States this decade to about 50 percent below 2005 levels, but legislation to help achieve that target has been stalled in Congress. This leaves management to rely on regulations and other executive actions.

On Tuesday, the White House is set to release other new climate initiatives, including a plan to protect tropical forests and a plan to accelerate clean technology, according to senior administration officials briefing reporters on Monday.

The centerpiece, however, would be the proposed arrangement for methane. In his address to world leaders in Glasgow on Monday, Mr. Biden said that 70 countries joined the coalition To reduce global methane levels by at least 30 percent by 2030, led by the United States and the European Union.

“I encourage every nation to sign it,” Biden said, calling it “the single most effective strategy for slowing global warming in the near term.”

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and is responsible for more than a quarter of the warming the planet is currently experiencing. It dissipates from the atmosphere faster than carbon dioxide, but is more powerful in warming the atmosphere in the short term.

Odorless, colorless, flammable gas, methane is produced with landfills, agriculture, livestock and oil and gas drilling. During gas production, it is sometimes deliberately incinerated or released into the atmosphere.

As methane concentrations in the atmosphere increased, environmentalists became increasingly concerned about its role in climate change.

According to the EPA, when regulation is complete, it will reduce 41 million tons of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035, equivalent to 920 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That amount is more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from all US passenger cars and commercial aircraft in 2019, the agency said.

“With this historic action, the EPA is addressing existing resources in the oil and gas industry nationwide, in addition to updating rules for new sources to ensure robust and lasting cuts in pollution nationwide,” said Michael S. Regan, director of the agency. , in a statement.

But Republicans in Congress said Mr Biden’s promises in Glasgow would hurt Americans at home. “The President wants to kill off the abundant and affordable US energy sources, such as oil, gas and coal, on which Americans depend,” Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, said in a statement. The White House described the plans as a “recipe for disaster” that would lead to affordable energy shortages.

The oil and gas industry is divided over the methane scheme.

Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, which represents some of the nation’s largest producers, said her group supports the new federal regulations, but has not seen the details.

Ms. Herbert noted that methane emissions from natural gas have decreased by 73 percent since 1990. However, he said, “we realize that we have to turn our buttons and get to that final percentage.” He described the regulation as “the best possible approach” to establishing industry-wide standardized rules.

But small oil and gas producers worry that the new rules will create heavy burdens that will put them out of business.

Observers say the proposed regulations may take time to take effect, face legal challenges and could be reversed by a future administration.

“When a president tries to exercise unilateral executive powers, a series of obstacles immediately arise,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of environmental policy at the University of Michigan. “It won’t be an easy transition”

EPA officials said that in addition to reducing greenhouse gases, regulating methane would protect public health.

When methane is released into the atmosphere, it is often accompanied by dangerous chemicals such as benzene and hydrogen sulfide. Exposure to these pollutants is linked to: serious health problems including asthma and cancer.

Sue Franklin knows the effects firsthand. She and her husband, Jim, lived in the West Texas town of Verhalen, where oil and gas drilling operations began around 2014.

Gases leaking from two new wells caused double headaches, nosebleeds and asthma attacks.

The Franklin family eventually moved about 40 miles away, but Ms. Franklin, 70, said she feared she would have respiratory problems for the rest of her life.

“It will never get better; damage has been done,” said Ms. Franklin when she and her husband traveled to Washington DC to protest new fossil fuel projects. Ms. Franklin thought new regulations regulating oil and gas wells would help, but only up to a point.

“We were the lucky ones,” he said. “We’re dating. Other people are still living with it. I’d love to see them really shut down.”

The oil and gas industry has united against a separate effort by Congress to impose fees on methane spills from oil and gas wells as part of a broader budget bill.

The methane charge is designed to both increase income and reduce greenhouse pollution. Experts said a two-pronged approach is needed to curb methane emissions.

The fee will apply to the largest oil and gas companies that emit more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year. These companies will pay $900 per ton starting in 2024 and will increase to $1,500 per ton from 2026 to 2030.

Oil and gas producers are lobbying heavily to remove the methane charge from legislation pending on Capitol Hill.

Anne Bradbury, CEO of the American Exploration and Production Council, which represents oil and gas companies, said: “This new, poorly structured gas tax will add to the regulatory costs imposed through compliance with future EPA methane rules. Costs and punitive taxes that will put American manufacturers at a disadvantage, increase Americans’ energy costs, and result in the loss of 90,000 jobs nationwide.”

Methane regulations have a broken history in Washington.

President Barack Obama first recommended rules In 2016, methane gas reduction from new and modified gas wells was completed and completed while leaving the task. Republicans tried to kill them in 2017 using a vague law known as the Congressional Review Act, which allowed lawmakers to overturn the rules within 60 legislative days after they became final, but failed.

The Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency repealed Mr. Obama’s methane regulations as President Donald J. Trump left office.

In April, Democrats tried to implement the Congressional Review Act, and they were successful. Kill Mr Trump’s comeback.

According to the EPA, the proposed rule would establish a monitoring program in which companies will be required to find and correct methane leaks, often referred to as “fugitive emissions,” at new and existing well sites and compressor stations.

Technology that reduces methane emissions is available, said Mark Brownstein, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund. Operators can install vapor recovery systems in storage tanks, ensure pressure relief valves are not left open, and replace leaking pipes.

“This isn’t about rocket science,” said Mr Brownstein. “This is auto mechanics.”

Coral Davenport contributing reporting.