On March 13, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would move forward with reconsideration of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding (Endangerment Finding) as directed in President Trump’s Executive Order...more
On March 14, 2025, President Trump signed legislation disapproving the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation implementing the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. The Joint...more
The Biden administration introduced wide-ranging environmental regulations with profound and far-reaching effects on the environment and the economy. In its first two weeks, the Trump administration has signaled an attempt...more
A group of 23 Republican AGs filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of the EPA’s Final Rule requiring charges on certain oil and gas producers exceeding Congressional methane emissions...more
On November 12, 2024, the Biden administration announced a final rule to reduce methane emissions from high-emitting oil and gas producers. Enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act (the “Act”), EPA will now collect Waste...more
On July 9, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) declined to stay a new Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) rule that seeks to limit methane emissions in the oil...more
On May 14, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems under 40 C.F.R. Part 98, Subpart W in the Federal Register....more
Oil and gas companies will soon be required to pay annual fees to the federal government based on their methane emissions. These fees, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expects will exceed $2 billion over the...more
A stream of judicial decisions in the pipeline will have important implications for the energy industry. The three cases discussed below are among those that energy litigators and industry professionals are watching in 2024....more
Key Takeaways - • What Is Happening? On January 12, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule to implement the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Methane Waste Emissions Charge (WEC)....more
We wrote an overview of the methane tax after the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law in August 2022 and Congress directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose the first-ever direct tax on methane...more
On December 2, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a Final Rule under the Clean Air Act that will sharply reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. The rule applies to sources involved...more
The Situation: The Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") finalized regulations designed to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by 80% in coming years at both new and existing facilities. The regulations...more
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...more
The USEPA often refers to its relationship with the states as “cooperative federalism.” The recently proposed regulations for the control of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry contain some unique provisions that...more
This article is the second in a two-part series analyzing recent proposals by federal agencies to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas production. The first article addresses the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM)...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released its most recent proposal for controlling greenhouse gas emissions produced by the oil and gas industry earlier this month....more
The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains several new provisions related to methane emissions impacting oil and gas companies, including upstream and midstream. Companies who already report emissions to the...more
What’s Next in the Regulation of Methane Emissions? Previously in our sessions, I have discussed carbon dioxide and what policymakers should do about it. Last month I explained it in full in a speech to the Independent...more
EPA has received more than 300,000 comments on its November 2021 proposal to regulate methane from new and existing sources in the oil and gas production sector. We previously wrote about EPA’s proposal. Now we’ve analyzed a...more
The Global Methane Pledge (GMP) was one of the few headline commitments announced at COP26. The response to the GMP indicates that tackling methane emissions is now firmly on the agenda for the petroleum industry... ...more
On November 15, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a proposed rule that included three separate actions under the Clean Air Act that target new and existing air emission sources at oil and natural gas...more
After years of attempts with varying success to regulate methane emissions from new oil and gas wells, the Biden administration has shifted strategy in proposing a regulatory program covering both new and existing oil and...more
Earlier this week, EPA published its proposed new methane regulations for the oil and gas sector. These new rules will have significant practical implications for the industry and have the potential to set new precedent for...more
Last week, as world leaders met at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), issued a proposed rule under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) designed...more