On January 29, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that would amend the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program for the petroleum and natural gas systems source category at 40 CFR Part 98, Subpart W, which was revised as recently as October 2015. Specifically, EPA now proposes to add new monitoring methods for detecting leaks from oil and natural gas equipment in order to achieve consistency with the leak detection methods in the agency’s pending New Source Performance Standards rulemaking for the oil and natural gas industry. In addition, EPA is proposing to add emission factors for leaking equipment for use in the calculation and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. Comments regarding the latest Subpart W rulemaking are due February 29, 2016.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is convening a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel to discuss a rulemaking aimed at regulating greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and natural gas sector, as part of the Obama Administration’s methane reduction strategy announced in mid-January. The rulemaking is expected to affect sources in the production, processing, transmission and storage segments of the industry. Small businesses operating in the oil and natural gas sector that expect to be subject to the requirements of the rulemaking may be eligible to serve on the Panel as a “Small Entity Representative” (SER). According to EPA, the role of a SER is “to provide advice and recommendations to ensure that the Panel carefully considers small entity concerns regarding the impact of the potential rule on their organizations and to communicate with other small entities within their sector who do not serve as SERs.” Interested parties must contact EPA by February 11, 2015.
This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposal to amend Subpart W of the greenhouse gas reporting program rules, which affects the Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems source category. According to EPA’s fact sheet, “[t]he proposal includes revisions to certain calculation methods, monitoring and data reporting requirements, terms and definitions, and technical and editorial errors that were identified during the course of implementation.” The fact sheet also indicates that EPA is proposing confidentiality determinations for “new or substantially revised data elements” and proposing a revised confidentiality determination for one existing data element. EPA expects that the amendments would not “significantly” change the amount of entities or greenhouse gas emissions covered by the reporting program.
On April 2, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew a direct final rule it issued in February 2013 that required oil and natural gas companies to submit by June 30th of each year a request to use alternative calculation methods for reporting greenhouse gas emissions. EPA received adverse comments on the direct final rule, and will instead address this issue through the proposed rulemaking process.