On Friday June 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy announced that they are now receiving applications for $850 million in federal funding for projects that will help monitor, measure, quantify and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors as part of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program created under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The funding will specifically help small oil and natural gas operators, as well as tribes, states, and communities to reduce methane emissions and transition to available and innovative methane emissions reduction technologies, while also supporting partnerships that improve emissions measurement and provide accurate, transparent data to impacted communities. 

In response to this announcement, EEN President & CEO Rev. Dr. Jessica Moerman issued the following statement: 

“As evangelicals, we are called to protect God’s creation and ensure a healthy environment and safe climate for all God’s children. We need everyone working together as part of the solution. That is why the Evangelical Environmental Network celebrates today’s announcement that the Biden Administration is providing $850 million in grants to small oil and gas producers to reduce methane pollution from their operations as part of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program. Cutting wasteful and dangerous methane emissions from the oil and gas sector is crucial to defending our children’s health from toxic gasses associated with methane leaks and other contaminants that despoil God’s amazing creation. It is also one of the fastest ways to slow global warming now. Together with the EPA methane standard and methane waste emissions charge, this funding is part of a comprehensive approach to cut methane pollution and give our children the bright and healthy future they deserve.”

Methane pollution and associated toxics are linked to birth defects, asthma, cancer, and other harms to our health. Fossil fuel pollution, including methane, is the leading environmental threat to children’s health worldwide, robbing our children and loved ones from reaching their full God-given potential. Across the US, more than 3 million children and 17 million Americans live, work, play, or go to school within the half-mile health threat radius of oil and gas production. This includes over 12,000 schools and daycares and the front yards and front doors of thousands of communities of color and low-income communities, who are disproportionately impacted and exposed. This funding will deliver clear air and family-sustaining jobs to our communities as well as reduce waste and inefficiencies in U.S. oil and gas operations ensuring more of our precious natural resources make it to market instead of being wasted into thin air.

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About the Methane Emissions Reduction Program Funding Opportunity 

The primary objectives of this funding opportunity announcement are to: 

1. Help small operators significantly reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations, using commercially available technology solutions for methane emissions monitoring, measurement, quantification and mitigation. 
2. Accelerate the repair of methane leaks from low-producing wells and the deployment of early-commercial technology solutions to reduce methane emissions from new and existing equipment such as natural gas compressors, gas-fueled engines, associated gas flares, liquids unloading operations, handling of produced water and other equipment leakage. 
3. Improve communities’ access to empirical data and participation in monitoring through multiple installations of monitoring and measurement technologies, while establishing collaborative relationships between equipment providers and communities. 
4. Enhance the detection and measurement of methane emissions from oil and gas operations at a regional scale, while ensuring nationwide data consistency through the creation of collaborative partnerships. These partnerships will span the country’s oil and gas-producing regions and draw in oil and natural gas owners and operators, universities, environmental justice organizations, community leaders, unions, technology developers, Tribes, state regulatory agencies, non-governmental research organizations, federally funded research and development centers and DOE’s National Laboratories.  

A competitive solicitation for this funding will enable a broad range of eligible U.S. entities to apply, including industry, academia, non-governmental organizations, Tribes and state and local governments. This funding opportunity is expected to achieve measurable outcomes for skilled workforce training, community involvement and environmental justice. Funding applicants are required to submit Community Benefits Plans to demonstrate meaningful engagement with and tangible benefits to the communities in which the proposed projects will be located. These plans must provide details on the applicant’s commitments to community and labor engagement, quality job creation, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, and benefits to disadvantaged communities as part of the Justice40 Initiative. Established in Executive Order 14008, the President’s Justice40 Initiative set the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.  

Read more details of this funding opportunity. For any questions on the application, applicants must submit written questions through the FedConnect portal at FedConnect.net. For assistance with any technical issues with grants.gov, please contact 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov. More information, including applicant eligibility, can be found on the government grants page.