A Final Rule Impacting Oil & Natural Gas Industry
On March 9, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a final rule to limit air pollution from the crude oil and natural gas industry. The rule aims to reduce emissions of methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and air toxics (benzene and toulene).
The official name of this rule is “Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review.” (87 FR 74702). It is commonly known as the “methane rule” or “oil and gas rule.”
How does this affect me?
The rule may impact an existing or new source involved in the production, processing, transmission, and storage of oil or natural gas. It includes wells, centrifugal compressors, reciprocating compressors, process controllers, pumps, storage vessels, fugitive emissions components, and process unit equipment. To know if you are impacted, refer to EPA’s oil and natural gas source table. To see the standards for each source, refer to EPA’s standards table. The final rule is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40 CFR 60 Subparts OOOOb and OOOOc.
- Sources constructed, reconstructed, or modified after December 6, 2022, are considered new sources and must adhere to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) in 40 CFR 60 Subpart OOOOb.
- Sources constructed, reconstructed, or modified on or before December 6, 2022, are considered existing sources, and are subject to a State Plan that adheres to the standards of performance or equivalent in 40 CFR 60 Subpart OOOOc.
State Plan
A State Plan implements a federal rule at the state level. The EPA’s final rule contains Emissions Guidelines (located in subpart OOOOc) for states to follow in developing State Plans that establish, implement, and enforce performance standards for pollutant emissions from existing oil and gas sources. State plans for this rule are due on March 9, 2026. Any facility currently complying with 40 CFR Subparts OOOO or OOOOa will continue to comply with those subparts until the State Plan is finalized.
We Want To Hear From You
The Division for Air Quality (Division) is evaluating a potential path forward for a State Plan. During this process, the Division is seeking to engage the industry, small businesses, and communities most affected by the final rule. The Division is requesting comments on:
- Technical and economic feasibility for owners/operators to meet standards in model rule,
- Equivalent standards that might meet the same emissions criteria as the presumptive standards,
- Whether your source will be seeking alternative standards based on remaining useful life and other factors and any obstacles to submitting this information for evaluation,
- Recommendations on how applicable sources might be grouped or categorized for permitting/registration purposes,
- Barriers to demonstrating compliance with presumptive standards and potential issues providing the necessary recordkeeping and reporting as required in the final rule,
- How the final rule might impact you or your community, and
- Whether the Cabinet should adopt the model rule.
Please note that this is not an official public comment period and it is not required for the Division to respond to comments.
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