US EPA rolls back Biden-era flaring, methane monitoring rules
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Apr. 6 issued a final rule to roll back regulations, approved during the Biden administration, to slash methane emission by about 80% and limit volatile organic compound (VOCs) emissions from new and existing oil and gas operations.
The revisions to EPA's Clean Air Act OOOOb/c (Quad O) rules extend the time limit for temporary natural flaring and eliminate several methane-monitoring requirements.
The Biden-era rule phased out routine flaring of associated natural gas from new sources, but it allowed owners and operators to perform temporary flaring for up to 24 hours during emergency repair and maintenance. The extension to 72 hour—or longer in certain situations—will give the industry more time to troubleshoot and repair equipment, EPA said.
The previous rule also required continuous monitoring of the net heating value (NHV) of vent gas from flares and enclosed combustion devices (ECD).
The most recent action removes the NHV monitoring and testing provisions, “except where inert gases or other miscellaneous scenarios are present,” EPA said. It noted that its final rule also eliminates the general exemption from NHV monitoring for associated gas for any control device used at well sites. “These changes will reduce the number of unnecessary tests by up to 141,000 per year—about 1.9 million over 15 years,” EPA estimated.
EPA said the final rule responds to several petitions for reconsideration, feedback from industry—including from a 45-day public comment period—and additional data EPA received after finalization of the Biden-era 2024 rule.
Last March, EPA said it would rework Biden administration efforts to control methane emissions because they were “throttling the oil and gas industry.” In November, EPA issued an interim final rule to extend several compliance deadlines in the prior rule, saying the industry needed “more realistic” compliance timelines.
Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a nonpartisan, federal budget watchdog group, called the new rules a “lose-lose-lose.”
It noted that methane releases “squander a valuable energy resource, drains revenue from public coffers, and adds to health and safety risks for nearby communities.”
EPA did not estimate the increased emissions—and resulting taxpayer costs—from these changes, TCS noted.
About the Author
Cathy Landry
Washington Correspondent
Cathy Landry has worked over 20 years as a journalist, including 17 years as an energy reporter with Platts News Service (now S&P Global) in Washington and London.
She has served as a wire-service reporter, general news and sports reporter for local newspapers and a feature writer for association and company publications.
Cathy has deep public policy experience, having worked 15 years in Washington energy circles.
She earned a master’s degree in government from The Johns Hopkins University and studied newspaper journalism and psychology at Syracuse University.