Earthjustice Blasts EPA for Methane Emissions Rollback

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an interim final rule to extend compliance deadlines of the new source performance standards (NSPS) and emission guidelines for the oil and gas industry, finalized in early 2024.

Alexandra Schluntz, senior attorney at Earthjustice, issued the following statement in response:

“The Trump administration has yet again displayed its contempt for the law, this time ignoring the requirement for public input and hastily issuing a rule that gives the oil and gas industry a pass to pollute, harm our health, and degrade our environment. We cannot let this stand.”

Background

In 2024, the Biden administration issued landmark regulations reducing methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from oil and gas production. The new source performance standards and emission guidelines would cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 2%, preventing the release of 58 million tons of methane, 16 million tons of volatile organic compounds, and 590,000 tons of air toxics over the next 14 years.

Earthjustice has been working to establish strong methane emission standards for both new and existing oil and gas sources for many years and was instrumental in resisting the first Trump administration’s efforts to attack the rule. In 2016, EPA revised its NSPS for the oil and gas industry and issued the first national standards limiting emissions of methane from new and modified sources. Earthjustice worked to defend the 2016 rule against industry attack, including efforts to stay implementation of the rule. However, the Trump administration ultimately sought to undo much of the 2016 rule, issuing two rules rolling back many provisions. Following Congressional disapproval of one of the Trump rules, as well as litigation pursued by Earthjustice and its partners, the Biden administration took office and began the process of issuing a revised rule for new and existing sources in the oil and gas industry.

EPA announced the final NSPS rule at the United Nations COP 28 summit on December 3, 2023, and published the rule in the Federal Register on March 8, 2024. The 2024 rule largely reinstates and improves upon the 2016 rules, requiring extensive leak detection and repair, zero-emission pneumatic devices, and a ban on routine flaring at new facilities. Industry groups and antagonistic states challenged the 2024 rule in the D.C. Circuit. Earthjustice intervened and successfully defended the rule against attempts to prevent it from going into effect on behalf of Dakota Resource Council, Ft. Berthold POWER, Clean Air Council, GreenLatinos, and Food and Water Watch.