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An analysis conducted by Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of the energy-focused software-as-a-service firm Enverus, predicts that proposed changes to Subpart W of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Program “would more than double 2021 reported methane and increase overall carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 41%,” an EIR news release states. Purpose of the revisions The […]
On July 24, 2023, the EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) released a Notice of Intent (NOI) announcing the first in a series of funding opportunities to monitor and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and for environmental restoration of well sites. Methane […]
Both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the EPA have recently issued proposed rules aimed at reduced methane emissions from both new and existing oil and gas production sources. BLM The BLM’s proposed rule aimed at curbing flared, vented, or leaked methane waste on federal and tribal lands is similar to a 2016 Obama […]
On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted an administrative stay on the EPA’s implementation of its rollback of oil and gas methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions limits.
It is a common (and somewhat unfounded) stereotype that industry abhors regulation, and words like “burdensome” and “unreasonable” frequently come into play in discussions of labor and environmental law. In the last several months, however, this impression has been challenged by big industry players that have come out in support of various environmental regulations—and, in […]
On its way to becoming a final rule, an odd thing happened to an EPA proposal that would withdraw requirements promulgated by the Obama administration—major players in the affected sector itself have come out against the proposal and requested that the Agency preserve the provisions it wants to eliminate.
Seven years after the Obama administration issued major amendments to Clean Air Act (CAA) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) affecting the oil and gas (O&G) sector and 3 years after it issued another set of amendments, the EPA is proposing to rescind substantial parts of both actions. First, the Agency wants to remove O&G storage […]
A federal district court judge ordered the EPA to approve or disapprove plans states have submitted to implement the Agency’s Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. The complaint against the Agency was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by eight states that argued that the […]
Several federal lawmakers continue to press the EPA for information about the impact of its proposal (October 15, 2018, Federal Register (FR)) to weaken the Obama administration’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) governing air emissions from the oil and natural gas (O&G) sector (June 3, 2016, FR).
In a September 15, 2016, hearing of the House Environment Subcommittee, Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), the subcommittee chair, modified for a new purpose the “war on coal” tagline supporters of the mining and energy industries have used to characterize the Obama administration’s coal-related environmental regulations. According to Bridenstine, the administration is now also engaging in a […]