On August 13, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized significant changes to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas (O&G) industry. Among the most notable revisions: methane is no longer regulated under 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart OOOOa (NSPS OOOOa), and the transmission and storage (T&S) segment has been removed from the “Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production” source category regulated under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).
These changes were implemented through two separate rulemakings:
- The Technical Rule, which finalizes technical amendments first proposed in 2018
- The Policy Rule, which finalizes broader policy changes proposed in 2019
This Tora Brief outlines the key changes introduced by the Policy Rule. A summary of Technical Rule revisions is provided in Appendix A.