Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado proposed on Monday tough new limits on leaks of methane and other gases from well sites and storage tanks. Supporters called the limits, which would exceed existing federal rules, the most sweeping in the nation.
Although the rules would also cover traditional petroleum and gas exploration and production, pollution from fracking — hydraulic fracturing, used to extract gas and oil from rock formations — is the driving force behind the proposal.
The proposal, which would directly regulate emissions of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas, for the first time, came just after Colorado voters indicated their unease with the state's booming oil and gas industry in elections this month.
Mr. Hickenlooper developed the proposal in negotiations with three of the state's largest oil and gas developers — Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Encana Corporation and Noble Energy — and the Environmental Defense Fund, a national advocacy group.
Among other measures, it would require companies to regularly search for and repair gas leaks in their drilling and production equipment and to keep records of their findings.
It would also regulate aspects of production to keep escaping gases to a minimum — for instance, by requiring the use of high-efficiency burners when flaring gas at well sites, or by limiting emissions from valves that are designed to bleed gas when opening or closing.
Equally important, many provisions would apply to existing as well as new wells and equipment, requiring retrofits to ensure that older sites comply with the new rules.
According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the number of producing wells in Colorado rose nearly 50 percent from 2006 to 2011, to more than 30,000, mostly because of the growth of fracking.
In recent years, a smoggy haze has crept across the front range of the Rocky Mountains north of Denver, where new wells are concentrated, partly as a result of gas leaks that have reacted with other chemicals to form ozone. Nine counties in the area, including much of Rocky Mountain National Park, exceed federal ozone limits.
Pollution appears to have been one reason voters in four Colorado towns and cities enacted bans or moratoriums on fracking within their boundaries. The votes were widely seen as a rebuff to the fracking industry and to Mr. Hickenlooper, a Democrat and onetime geologist who has strongly backed increased oil and gas exploration.
In crucial respects, the new proposal goes well beyond the restrictions that the federal Environmental Protection Agency began enforcing last year.
The federal rules apply primarily to new wells, leaving thousands of older sites exempt from regulation, and cover only leaks of volatile organic compounds. They do not directly limit leaks of methane, although requirements to limit emissions of volatile organic compounds also end up reducing methane.
Nor do the federal rules require companies to check for leaks at well sites and repair them.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere, but its impact on global warming over a 100-year period is at least 20 times that of the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
Officials at the Environmental Defense Fund and one of the petroleum companies, Anadarko, said the proposal would benefit the industry and the environment. The fund's president, Fred Krupp, called it "a model for the nation."
A spokesman for Anadarko, John Christiansen, said in an interview that the rules would not only reduce pollution but also benefit oil and gas firms financially by reducing the amount of natural gas wasted.
"We have 1,300 employees in Colorado, and they all share the same goal with all residents that live there," he said. "It's about cleaner air."
The proposal is designed to place the stiffest requirements on big producers like Anadarko. But Mr. Christiansen said many of the biggest companies had already deployed many of the pollution-reducing measures that the new Colorado rules would require. Smaller operators are likely to face the biggest adjustment, and the largest expense, should the proposal be adopted by the state's Air Quality Control Commission.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, which represents the industry, offered a more muted response, saying in a news release that its officials looked forward to reviewing the proposal.
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