HSE & Sustainability

EPA’s Two Final NSPS Rules Considered Win for Oil and Gas Industry

On 13 August 2020, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced two final rules related to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry.

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On 13 August 2020, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced two final rules related to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry.

The “policy package” is the first rule finalized. The EPA determined “the Obama EPA’s addition of the transmission and storage segment was improper and removes it from the regulation while also rescinding emissions standards for that segment,” according to the agency’s news release. “The policy package also makes clear that oil and gas operators will still be required to reduce emissions of ozone-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the production and processing segment of the industry.”

Based on the reasoning that the pollution controls used to reduce VOC emissions will also reduce methane emissions, the policy package “removes methane control requirements for the production and processing segments.”

According to the Trump administration, “The separate regulation of methane imposed by the 2016 rule was both improper and redundant.”

The rollback was first proposed in 2019 and accused the “Obama administration of enacting a legally flawed rule, and agency officials said it would save companies tens of millions of dollars a year in compliance requirements without changing the trajectory of methane emissions,” according to WFMJ.com.

The “technical package” comprises the second rule, which “includes commonsense changes to the NSPS that will directly benefit smaller oil and gas operators who rely on straightforward regulatory policy to run their businesses and provide Americans with reliable, affordable energy,” according to the agency.

States, including California, and a coalition of environmental activists claim the changes are illegal and harmful to climate change efforts and state they will quickly take legal action to challenge the new rules.

Read the full story here.