- A group of 19 AGs co-signed a comment letter supporting an EPA supplemental proposal to strengthen emissions regulations for facilities in the oil and natural gas sector. The proposal contains the first EPA emission guidelines regulating methane from existing oil and natural gas sources under the Clean Air Act. EPA’s previous performance standards only regulated methane emissions from new oil and gas sources.
- In the letter, the AGs note that the oil and natural gas sector is the largest industrial emitter of methane in the United States, and that EPA anticipates the supplemental proposal will result in approximately 36 million tons of methane emissions reductions in the years 2023 to 2035.
- The AG coalition expresses its strong support for the EPA’s supplemental proposal but requests that EPA strengthen certain elements before issuing a final rule. These proposed changes include adding a prohibition on routine flaring of gasses from oil wells with exceptions only for safety or emergencies, as well as lowering the threshold for defining a “super-emitter” emissions event such that a super-emitter response program would be triggered.