EPA Halts Development of Emission Guidelines for the Existing Oil and Natural Gas Sector

On March 10, 2016, the EPA announced its intention to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (specifically methane) from existing oil and natural gas sources. The agency began to undertake a formal process to require companies operating existing oil and natural gas sources to provide information to assist in the development of comprehensive regulations. The information collection request was withdrawn in March 2017. EPA subsequently decided not to proceed with the development of emission guidelines for existing oil and gas sources. This decision was noted in the 2017 update to the Unified Agenda, RIN # 2060-AT29. There was no federal register announcement of EPA’s decision, as EPA had not yet published a rule proposal for this action.