EPA proposes rewrite of 2024 oil and gas methane standards, including ending the Super Emitter Program

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, Oct. 27, proposed revising the 2024 Clean Air Act standards for methane and other emissions from oil and natural gas operations, known as OOOOb and OOOOc. EPA said the proposal was announced in Lubbock, Texas, by President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.¹ It is a proposal, not a final rule: EPA says comments will be taken for 45 days after it is published in the Federal Register, a date not yet set as of Oct. 27.²

At a rally for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Trump said the administration is “terminating” the Biden-era rule and that the change would save consumers and producers $45 billion, The Associated Press reported.³ EPA's own documents describe the action as a proposed rule.²

What the proposal would change

EPA's release lists five main changes:¹

• Well sites: EPA is co-proposing two ways to set separate standards for well sites, by production level (marginal or non-marginal) or by resource type (conventional or unconventional).
• Super Emitter Program: EPA proposes to rescind the program, which certified third-party monitors to detect large leak events and required states to do likewise.
• Covers and closed vent systems: the “No Identifiable Emissions” requirement would be split into design and operational parts, with the operational part allowing for repairs.
• Associated gas: flaring or other control devices with 95% efficiency would replace the 2024 requirement to route associated gas from oil wells to a sales line.
• Control devices: technical changes on flame monitoring, device alerts and visible-emissions tests.

EPA's figures and rationale

EPA's release calls the 2024 rules “burdensome” and “unworkable.” The agency says it expects the proposal to save $45 billion in costs to consumers and businesses, without giving a time period, and estimates it would allow about 210 million additional barrels of oil and 1.41 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to be produced. EPA says the 2024 rule's cost was put at $18 billion when it was finalized and that this figure was too low.¹ EPA cites legal concerns and questions the need for the Super Emitter Program, and says routing all associated gas to a sales line is not feasible in every producing area.¹ These are EPA's estimates and positions; they have not been through public comment.

“We have listened to Americans' concerns and are taking our biggest step yet to fix it,” Zeldin said in the release.¹

A virtual public hearing will be held 15 days after publication, and comments go to docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0163 on Regulations.gov. EPA published the 2024 rule on March 8, 2024, and announced a broader reconsideration on March 12, 2025.²

What each side says

Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said the change gives companies a “free pass” at consumers' expense and that “EPA should be fighting this waste, not making it easier,” the AP reported.³ David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in an Oct. 7 statement, before the proposal was issued, that the “Trump EPA is trying to give a free pass to the worst actors in the oil and gas industry,” The Hill reported, as cited by the Daily Caller News Foundation.⁴

The Independent Petroleum Association of America told the Daily Caller News Foundation the country “should be doing everything we can to extend the productive life of these wells.” The National Stripper Well Association said in a Sept. 29 statement that compliance costs “will make the wells uneconomical to operate,” according to the same report.⁴

What the records do not show

EPA's release and web page do not give the proposal's Federal Register publication date, the comment deadline or the hearing date. This story does not draw on the pre-publication preamble or regulatory impact analysis, so it does not report EPA's emissions estimates or the basis for the $45 billion figure. Any changes would take effect only if EPA issues a final rule.