EPA Delays Implementation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Oil & Natural Gas Facilities

Over the last few weeks, we have blogged about myriad (bad) decisions by Trump’s EPA leaders to delay the implementation of Clean Air Act emission standards, especially those that were finalized in the waning months of the Biden Administration.  

For a little bit of background on all that, look here and here.  

Then it happened again July 31: The regime published a rule extending the deadlines for implementing two sets of standards which would limit greenhouse gas emissions from oil and natural gas production facilities – one set of standards dealing with such facilities that were built after Dec 6, 2022 (Subpart OOOOb), and the other dealing with emissions from such facilities which were already in operation by Dec. 6, 2022 (Subpart OOOOc).  

Interestingly, although both Subpart OOOOb and Subpart OOOOc address the same types of emissions from the same types of facilities, they are authorized by different provisions of the Clean Air Act.  

We gotta get a little technical - stay with us, promise it won’t be painful:

Subpart OOOOb is a New Source Performance Standard promulgated by EPA under section 111(b) of the Act. Section 111(b) authorizes EPA to establish performance standards for a category of new facilities that are anticipated to cause or contribute to air pollution that endangers the public health or welfare. 

In contrast, Subpart OOOOc is promulgated under little-used section 111(d) of the Act.  Section 111(d) authorizes EPA to require that the states submit plans to EPA to regulate existing facilities that are otherwise unregulated by the Clean Air Act directly (however, they may be regulated by state law) and which would otherwise be subject to standards under section 111(b) if they were new. 

If section 111(d) rings a bell, it is because the U.S. Supreme Court rejected EPA’s attempt to use it to overhaul the electric generating industry by requiring existing fossil fuel-fired generating plants to capture and sequester their greenhouse gas emissions using section 111(d).  

We wrote about that here.

In the case of Subpart OOOOc, the states may (but are not required to) fulfill their obligations by adopting a model rule that EPA provided when it published Subpart OOOOc as a final rule.  

Pennsylvania is proposing to do just that. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published proposed regulations which mirrored EPA’s model rule back on May 31. 

Presumably, DEP will finalize and adopt those proposed regulations sometime later this year or early next. 

Because Subparts OOOOb and OOOOc were promulgated under different statutory subsections, their compliance deadlines originally moved on different timelines. 

Subpart OOOOb for new oil and natural gas production sources purportedly went into effect on May 7, 2024. 

For Subpart OOOOc, the states were originally required to submit their proposed regulations to EPA by March 9, 2026; facilities subject to the regulations likely would have been obligated to comply with them at that time.  The compliance deadlines for both subparts will now be Jan. 22, 2027.

According to the interim final rule published last week, EPA decided to extend Subpart OOOOb’s compliance deadlines based on petitions for reconsideration from the oil and natural gas industry following the final publication of the subpart in 2024.  

EPA stated that those petitions showed that industry’s compliance with subpart’s original deadlines was “untenable,” in many cases because there are not enough technicians or equipment available to upgrade facilities in the timeframe originally set by Subpart OOOOb. 

Also according to EPA, it decided to extend the deadline for the states to submit their plans to implement the requirements of Subpart OOOOc because a number of states have as yet been unable to determine what the contents of their plans will be, largely because of the “large and complex nature of the source category” and the difficulty some states are having harmonizing their existing oil and gas regulations with the requirements of Subpart OOOOc. 

"Again, we see the EPA delaying the implementation of an environmental regulation, sacrificing public health to appease industry interests," GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. "EPA's failure to address the Climate Crisis has hit a sad new low."

You can submit comments on EPA’s plan to delay implementation of these standards and limits for emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coke ovens through Sept. 2, 2025, at https://www.regulations.gov. Note: Identify your comments by two Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0162 and reference that docket number in your comments.