Trump’s EPA Nixes Methane Rule Compliance Deadlines for Oil & Gas Industry

Trump’s EPA on Dec. 1 announced that it is taking final action on the agency's July 2025 Interim Final Rule to extend several compliance deadlines in the Biden-Harris Administration's Clean Air Act rules for the oil and gas industry – commonly known as OOOOb/c. 

As we blogged back in August, the standards in Part OOOOb are New Source Performance Standards made under the authority of Section 111(b) of the Clean Air Act.

The standards outlined in Part OOOOc apply to existing sources, which would have previously been managed through state regulations mandated by the seldom-used Section 111(d) of the Act.

It’s worth noting that EPA’s press release touted the action “will impact hundreds of thousands of oil and gas sources across the country and save an estimated $750 million over 11 years in compliance costs.”

“It’s also worth noting that the term ‘public health’ is not mentioned once in the release,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “Sadly, placing industry fiscal considerations over environmental and public health has seemingly become routine in EPA’s decision making.”

Here’s an excerpt from the release:

In July 2025, EPA issued an IFR extending compliance deadlines in the 2024 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emissions Guidelines for OOOOb/c.

This IFR included extending the deadline to meet certain requirements related to control devices, equipment leaks, storage vessels, process controllers, and covers/closed vent systems for 18 months following the publication of the IFR in the Federal Register. This remains unchanged in today's final rule.

Also remaining unchanged are the 18-month extensions given to states to create plans for reducing methane emissions from existing oil and natural gas sources and for the implementation of the 2024 rule's "super emitter" program, which requires third parties using EPA-approved remote-sensing technology to provide EPA with data on potential large leaks.

Following a public comment period and a public hearing on the July 2025 IFR, EPA is extending the November 28, 2025, deadline for net heating value continuous monitoring requirements and alternative performance test (sampling demonstration) option for flares and enclosed combustion devices by 180 days.

This addresses the supply chain, personnel, and laboratory limitations identified by commenters, which made compliance with the requirements in the 2024 final rule infeasible. The IFR previously had extended this to 120 days.

To ensure clarity, EPA is providing 360 days from the effective date of this final action for owners and operators to submit all annual NSPS OOOOb reports that were originally due prior to this deadline. Subsequent reports are due no later than 90 days after the end of each annual compliance period. These changes do not alter any provisions specifying the annual compliance period.

Today's final action also includes all responses to public comments received on the IFR, as well as testimonies from the public hearing. To read the final rule and related materials, visit EPA's website for the oil and natural gas rules.