The Obama-era standards represented the most significant federal regulations aimed directly at reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, targeting gas wells, storage vessels, controllers, pumps, compressors and on-shore natural gas processing plants. In some cases, the standards imposed up to 95 or 100 percent emissions reduction requirements or controls, which the Agency estimated would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for the industry through 2025.
The restored standards do not signal an end to Congressional Democrats’ and the Biden-Harris administration’s response to emissions from the oil and gas industry. While the CRA prevents agencies from promulgating a “new rule that is substantially the same,” the Biden-Harris administration’s recently released Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions indicates that the EPA will propose new methane emissions guidelines for existing and new operations in the oil and gas industry, which according to President Biden’s public messaging will “requir[e] aggressive methane pollution limits.” Meanwhile, the administration is in the midst of reviewing the Interior Department’s fossil fuel leasing program, with notable changes to the existing federal regime virtually certain to follow. These represent just a few of many actions the administration has taken and will continue to take in an attempt to meet the United States’ commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement.
