José Figueroa, senior management and technical advisor for the Technology Development Center at NETL, is helping facilitate new efforts in greenhouse gas reduction by coordinating a methane emissions reduction program that supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Inflation Reduction Act statutory requirements of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP), adding to his long history of service with the Lab.

Raised in New York City, Figueroa earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Manhattan College in 1991. From 1991-1995, he worked as a mechanical engineer for Gilbert/Commonwealth Inc., an architectural and engineering consulting company. There, he worked on the design of material handling systems for industrial power houses, helped clients modularize their fuel cell system, conducted power plant condition assessments for sale to potential independent power producers and designed systems for a clean coal technology flue gas desulfurization plant. He later worked for Parson Power Group from 1995-1999 as an international assessment and development subtask manager.

Figueroa joined NETL as a Federal Project Manager doing work for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear offices and EERE in 1999. In 2004, Figueroa received his master’s degree of business administration from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2007, he started building a 20-year roadmap for NETL’s carbon capture technology research program, which has had a positive impact on the Carbon Capture Program that has significantly grown and segmented into the Point Source Carbon Capture, Carbon Dioxide Removal, and Carbon Dioxide Conversion programs.  

As the Lab’s Carbon Capture Team Supervisor, Figueroa promoted the integration of research and business needs to meet programmatic requirements. His work and experience both in government and the private sector were instrumental in building up NETL’s carbon capture technology research programs to combat the effects of climate change while maintaining the flow of affordable and reliable energy supplies.

Figueroa now works with the NETL Technology Development Center, the Lab’s project management center that coordinates with partner organizations in academia, industry, and other government entities. Since being promoted to senior management and technical adviser, one of Figueroa’s most important responsibilities is coordinating efforts between the EPA, DOE and NETL by offering technical and financial assistance that helps companies, including oil and gas owners and operators to monitor and reduce methane emissions from leaks and daily operations.

“The three entities recently released a notice of intent announcing the first in a series of funding opportunities to monitor and reduce methane emissions, one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, from the oil and gas sector and for environmental restoration of well sites,” Figueroa said. “While much of the conversations around climate change center on carbon dioxide, methane is 25 times more potent in trapping heat within the atmosphere on a 100-year time-scale, so this is very important when it comes to energy and the environment.”

EPA and DOE will provide up to $350 million in formula funding to eligible states to assist industry to voluntarily identify and permanently reduce methane emissions from low-producing conventional wells.

The funding for this work comes from EPA’s Methane Emissions Reduction Program. Created by the Inflation Reduction Act that amended the Clean Air Act through Section 136, the program provides $1.55 billion in funding, including financial and technical assistance to improve methane monitoring and reduce methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector with the co-benefit of reducing non-greenhouse emissions such as volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants.

Figueroa has also continued to mentor new project managers across DOE that have involved NETL project sites across the country.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.