Back in May 2024, we blogged about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finalization of a proposed rule that would have imposed a fee on waste methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
We blogged about that rule again in November, when EPA finally approved the fee itself. According to the Associated Press, EPA predicted that the rule would have reduced the industry’s emissions of methane by 1.2 million metric tons by 2035.
We say “would have” because the rule is no more.
On Feb. 27, both houses of Congress voted to disapprove the regulation under the Congressional Review Act (more on that in a different context here).
Under the Congressional Review Act, not only is the old rule imposing a waste methane emission fee invalidated, but EPA is prohibited from adopting a new, substantially similar rule in the future.
“What this means for compliance with the requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act that fee be imposed on the oil and gas industry’s waste methane emissions going forward is, at least for now, unclear,” GASP senior attorney John Baillie said.
We’ll keep you posted should the rule resurface in the future.