Courts Deny Requests to Stop EPA Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Methane Rule was finalized on March 8, 2024 and went into effect on May 7, 2024 but has faced multiple challenges in federal court, with the U.S. Supreme Court most recently refusing to stop implementation of the rule on October 4, 2024. This is in addition to legal challenges to other EPA regulations and additional EPA rules related to pollutants.

Following months of review, the EPA released its Methane Rule, titled Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review, with Texas and a coalition of 24 states filing petitions with the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit within days. The court rejected these motions to stop implementation of the Methane Rule on July 9, 2024and the challenging parties went to the Supreme Court in August.

At the heart of the petitions was that implementing these rules would place too great a burden on oil and gas companies. Additionally, challengers claim that the EPA’s Methane Rule is a case of the federal government overstepping its bounds and the EPA exceeding its authority by adding regulations without Congressional approval.

Lofty Goals Remain

The EPA Methane Rule is a collection of regulatory actions and requirements focused on the oil and gas industry meant to slash methane emissions. The rule set new emissions standards, established guidelines under the Clean Air Act that states could follow to develop and implement plans to set standards for limiting emissions and put in place a protocol for optical gas imaging (OGI). Under current rules, states would have up to two years from when the final rule was published to submit plans for implementing EPA guidelines.

The intent of the regulations being to improve monitoring and drastically reduce methane emissions. Altogether the EPA expects these regulations to prevent the release of approximately 58 million tons of methane into the atmosphere. The Methane Rule calls for a ban on routine flaring at new well sites, requires methane leak detection at well sites and other infrastructure, and sets standards for third-party monitoring and reporting of releases.

The EPA has also been releasing other rules related to the oil and gas industry aimed at limiting emissions. On October 22, 2024 the EPA published a final rule amending the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants regulations for the Oil and Natural Gas Production Facility and Natural Gas Transmission and Storage Facility Source Categories. This new rule would remove an affirmative defense that owners and operators have had regarding violations of the standard. This affirmative defense required that parties showed that they had attempted to limit emissions by making repairs and mitigating emissions as much as possible.

More Uncertainty Ahead

Despite the legal challenges, states are currently working on implementation plans. For instance, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been holding stakeholder meetings for the community to learn more about the Methane Rule and plans that the state is proposing and has set up a method for submitting written comments. TCEQ has also established a timeline for rulemaking that includes public comment periods and public meetings about the rules.

However, the possibility of additional legal challenges remains even though courts denied attempts to stop rule implementation. Additionally, how rules the courts’ refusal to stop implementation does not rule out future legal challenges to the Methane Rule and to other EPA regulations. At the same time, the future of various EPA rules under the next presidential administration is undoubtedly in question.

Methane Reduction Underway

Despite an uncertain future for federal methane rules, the oil and gas industry continues to make strides to reduce methane emissions. Critical to the industries’ efforts to reduce emissions is plugging and abandoning wells at the end of their useful life. As states and companies get further into their abandonment campaigns more and more wells have proved difficult to decommission utilizing cement alone due to issues with persistent gas flow. BioSqueeze is 4x more successful at sealing leaks than cement alternatives and has been used to seal leaks in over 150 wells to date.