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Rule2024-00366

Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review

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Published

March 8, 2024

Effective

May 7, 2024

Issuing agencies

Environmental Protection Agency

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing multiple actions to reduce air pollution emissions from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category. First, the EPA is finalizing revisions to the new source performance standards (NSPS) regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions for the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA). Second, the EPA is finalizing emission guidelines (EG) under the CAA for states to follow in developing, submitting, and implementing state plans to establish performance standards to limit GHG emissions from existing sources (designated facilities) in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category. Third, the EPA is finalizing several related actions stemming from the joint resolution of Congress, adopted on June 30, 2021, under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), disapproving the EPA's final rule titled, "Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review," September 14, 2020 ("2020 Policy Rule"). Fourth, the EPA is finalizing a protocol under the general provisions for optical gas imaging (OGI).

Full Text

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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 47 (Friday, March 8, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 16820-17227]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00366]

[[Page 16819]]

Vol. 89

Friday,

No. 47

March 8, 2024

Part II

Environmental Protection Agency

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40 CFR Part 60

Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources
and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas
Sector Climate Review; Final Rule

Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 47 / Friday, March 8, 2024 / Rules
and Regulations

[[Page 16820]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 60

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317; FRL-8510-01-OAR]
RIN 2060-AV16

Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified
Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural
Gas Sector Climate Review

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing
multiple actions to reduce air pollution emissions from the Crude Oil
and Natural Gas source category. First, the EPA is finalizing revisions
to the new source performance standards (NSPS) regulating greenhouse
gases (GHGs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions for the
Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category pursuant to the Clean Air Act
(CAA). Second, the EPA is finalizing emission guidelines (EG) under the
CAA for states to follow in developing, submitting, and implementing
state plans to establish performance standards to limit GHG emissions
from existing sources (designated facilities) in the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas source category. Third, the EPA is finalizing several
related actions stemming from the joint resolution of Congress, adopted
on June 30, 2021, under the Congressional Review Act (CRA),
disapproving the EPA's final rule titled, ``Oil and Natural Gas Sector:
Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources
Review,'' September 14, 2020 (``2020 Policy Rule''). Fourth, the EPA is
finalizing a protocol under the general provisions for optical gas
imaging (OGI).

DATES: This final rule is effective on May 7, 2024. The incorporation
by reference (IBR) of certain publications listed in the rules is
approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of May 7, 2024.

ADDRESSES: The EPA has established a docket for this rulemaking under
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317. All documents in the docket are
listed on the <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/">https://www.regulations.gov/</a> website. Although listed,
some information is not publicly available, e.g., Confidential Business
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted
by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is
not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard
copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available
electronically through <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/">https://www.regulations.gov/</a>.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Amy Hambrick, Sector Policies and
Programs Division (E143-05), Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander
Drive, P.O. Box 12055, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711;
telephone number: (919) 541-0964; email address: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b1d9d0dcd3c3d8d2da9fd0dcc8f1d4c1d09fd6dec7">[email&#160;protected]</a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Preamble acronyms and abbreviations.
Throughout this document the use of ``we,'' ``us,'' or ``our'' is
intended to refer to the EPA. We use multiple acronyms and terms in
this preamble. While this list may not be exhaustive, to ease the
reading of this preamble and for reference purposes, the EPA defines
the following terms and acronyms here:

AMEL alternative means of emission limitation
ANSI American National Standards Institute
API American Petroleum Institute
ARPA-E Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASTM ASTM, International
AVO audible, visual, and olfactory
AWP alternative work practice
bbl barrels of crude oil
BLM Bureau of Land Management
boe barrels of oil equivalents
BOEM Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
BSER best system of emission reduction
Btu/scf British thermal units per standard cubic foot
[deg]C degrees Celsius
CAA Clean Air Act
CBI Confidential Business Information
CCR Code of Colorado Regulations
CDX EPA's Central Data Exchange
CEDRI Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface
CFR Code of Federal Regulations
CO carbon monoxide
CO<INF>2</INF> carbon dioxide
CO<INF>2</INF> Eq. carbon dioxide equivalent
COS carbonyl sulfide
CRA Congressional Review Act
CS<INF>2</INF> carbon disulfide
CVS closed vent systems
D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit
DOE Department of Energy
EAV equivalent annual value
EDF Environmental Defense Fund
EG emission guidelines
EIA U.S. Energy Information Administration
EJ environmental justice
E.O. Executive Order
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
ESD emergency shutdown devices
[deg]F degrees Fahrenheit
FEAST Fugitive Emissions Abatement Simulation Toolkit
FR Federal Register
FrEDI EPA's Framework for Evaluating Damages and Impacts model
FRFA final regulatory flexibility analysis
g/hr grams per hour
GHG greenhouse gas
GHGI Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks
GHGRP Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
GOR gas-to-oil ratio
H<INF>2</INF>S hydrogen sulfide
HAP hazardous air pollutant(s)
ICR information collection request
IRFA initial regulatory flexibility analysis
IWG Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases
kg kilograms
kg/hr kilograms per hour
kt kilotons
lb/yr pounds per year
low-E low emission
LDAR leak detection and repair
LPE legally and practicably enforceable
Mcf thousand cubic feet
MW megawatt
NAAQS national ambient air quality standards
NAICS North American Industry Classification System
NDE no detectable emissions
NIE no identifiable emissions
NESHAP national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants
NGO non-governmental organization
NHV net heating value
NO<INF>X</INF> nitrogen oxides
NSPS new source performance standards
NTTAA National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act
O<INF>2</INF> oxygen
OAQPS Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
OGI optical gas imaging
OMB Office of Management and Budget
PM particulate matter
PM<INF>2.5</INF> particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5
micrometers or less
ppb parts per billion
ppm parts per million
PRA Paperwork Reduction Act
PSD prevention of significant deterioration
PTE potential to emit
PV present value
REC reduced emissions completion
RFA Regulatory Flexibility Act
RIA regulatory impact analysis
RTC response to comments
RULOF remaining useful life and other factors
SBAR Small Business Advocacy Review
SC-CH<INF>4</INF> social cost of methane
SC-CO<INF>2</INF> social cost of carbon dioxide
SC-GHG social cost of greenhouse gases
SC-N<INF>2</INF>O social cost of nitrous oxide
scf standard cubic feet
scfh standard cubic feet per hour
scfm standard cubic feet per minute
SIP State Implementation Plan
SO2 sulfur dioxide
SPeCS State Planning Electronic Collaboration System
tpy tons per year
the court U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

[[Page 16821]]

TAR Tribal Authority Rule
TIP Tribal Implementation Plan
TSD technical support document
UMRA Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
U.S. United States
VCS voluntary consensus standards
VOC volatile organic compound(s)
VRU vapor recovery unit

Organization of this document. The information in this preamble is
organized as follows:

I. General Information
A. Does this action apply to me?
B. Where can I get a copy of this document and other related
information?
C. Judicial Review and Administrative Review
II. Executive Summary
A. Purpose of the Regulatory Actions
B. Summary of the Major Provisions of This Regulatory Action
C. Costs and Benefits
III. Air Emissions From the Crude Oil and Natural Gas Sector and
Public Health and Welfare
A. Impacts of GHGs, VOCs, and SO<INF>2</INF> Emissions on Public
Health and Welfare
B. Profile of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry and Its Emissions
IV. Statutory Background and Regulatory History
A. Statutory Background of CAA Sections 111(b), 111(d), and
General Implementing Regulations
B. What is the regulatory history and litigation background of
NSPS and EG for the oil and natural gas industry?
C. Congressional Review Act (CRA) Joint Resolution of
Disapproval
V. Legal Basis for Final Rule Scope
A. Introduction
B. Overview
C. Comments
D. Response to Comments and Discussion
VI. Other Actions and Related Efforts
A. Related State Actions and Other Federal Actions Regulating
Oil and Natural Gas Sources
B. Industry and Voluntary Actions To Address Climate Change
C. Methane Emissions Reduction Program
VII. Summary of Engagement With Pertinent Stakeholders
VIII. Overview of Control and Control Costs
A. Control of Methane and VOC Emissions in the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas Source Category--Overview
B. How does the EPA evaluate control costs in this final action?
IX. Interaction of the Rules and Response to Significant Comments
Thereon
A. What date defines a new, modified, or reconstructed source
for purposes of the final NSPS OOOOb?
B. What date defines an existing source for purposes of the
final EG OOOOc?
C. How will the final EG OOOOc impact sources already subject to
NSPS KKK, NSPS OOOO, or NSPS OOOOa?
X. Summary of Final Standards NSPS OOOOb and EG OOOOc
A. Fugitive Emissions From Well Sites, Centralized Production
Facilities, and Compressor Stations
B. Advanced Methane Detection Technology Work Practices
C. Super Emitter Program
D. Process Controllers
E. Pumps
F. Wells and Associated Operations
G. Centrifugal Compressors
H. Combustion Control Devices
I. Reciprocating Compressors
J. Storage Vessels
K. Covers and Closed Vent Systems
L. Equipment Leaks at Natural Gas Processing Plants
M. Sweetening Units
N. Electronic Reporting
O. Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V
Permitting
XI. Significant Comments and Changes Since Supplemental Proposal for
NSPS OOOOb and EG OOOOc
A. Fugitive Emissions from Well Sites, Centralized Production
Facilities, and Compressor Stations
B. Advanced Methane Detection Technology Work Practices
C. Super Emitter Program
D. Process Controllers
E. Pumps
F. Wells and Associated Operations
G. Centrifugal Compressors
H. Combustion Control Devices
I. Reciprocating Compressors
J. Storage Vessels
K. Covers and Closed Vent Systems
L. Equipment Leaks at Natural Gas Processing Plants
M. Sweetening Units
XII. Significant Comments and Changes Since Proposal for NSPS OOOOa
and NSPS OOOO
A. Low Production Well Site Exemption Rescission
B. Compressor Station Quarterly Monitoring
C. Delay-of-Repair Provisions
D. Applicability/Scope of the Rule
XIII. Significant Comments and Changes to Emission Guidelines for
State, Tribal, and Federal Plan Development for Existing Sources
A. Overview
B. Components of EG
C. Establishing Standards of Performance in State Plans
D. Components of State Plan Submission
E. Timing of State Plan Submissions and Compliance Times
F. EPA Action on State Plans and Promulgation of Federal Plans
G. Tribes and the Planning Process Under CAA Section 111(d)
XIV. Use of Optical Gas Imaging in Leak Detection (Appendix K) and
Response to Significant Comments
A. Changes Since Supplemental Proposal
B. Summary of Requirements
XV. Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Permitting
XVI. Summary of Cost, Environmental, and Economic Impacts
A. What are the air quality impacts?
B. What are the secondary impacts?
C. What are the cost impacts?
D. What are the economic impacts?
E. What are the benefits?
F. What analyses of environmental justice did we conduct?
XVII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review and
Executive Order 14094: Modernizing Regulatory Review
B. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)
E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism
F. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With
Indian Tribal Governments
G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From
Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks
H. Executive Order 13211: Actions Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use
I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) and
1 CFR Part 51
J. Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions To Address
Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations and Executive Order 14096: Revitalizing Our Nation's
Commitment to Environmental Justice for All
K. Congressional Review Act (CRA)

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

The source category that is the subject of this final rulemaking is
composed of the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category regulated
under CAA section 111 New Source Performance Standards and Emission
Guidelines. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
codes for the industrial source category affected by the NSPS actions
finalized in this rulemaking are summarized in table 1. The NAICS codes
serve as a guide for readers outlining the type of entities that the
final NSPS actions are likely to affect. The NSPS codified in 40 Code
of Regulations (CFR) part 60, subpart OOOOb, are directly applicable to
affected facilities that begin construction, reconstruction, or
modification after December 6, 2022. Final amendments to 40 CFR part
60, subpart OOOO, are applicable to affected facilities that began
construction, reconstruction, or modification after August 23, 2011,
and on or before September 18, 2015. Final amendments to 40 CFR part
60, subpart OOOOa, are applicable to affected facilities that began
construction, reconstruction, or modification after September 18, 2015,
and on or before December 6, 2022. As shown in table 1, Federal, state,
and local government entities would not be affected by the NSPS
actions.

[[Page 16822]]

Table 1--Industrial Source Categories Affected by NSPS Actions
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Category NAICS Code\1\ Examples of regulated entities
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Industry........................... 211120 Crude Petroleum Extraction.
211130 Natural Gas Extraction.
221210 Natural Gas Distribution.
486110 Pipeline Distribution of Crude Oil.
486210 Pipeline Transportation of Natural Gas.
Federal Government................. . . . . Not affected.
State and Local Government......... . . . . Not affected.
Tribal Government.................. 921150 American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Governments.
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\1\ North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

This table is not intended to be exhaustive but rather provides a
guide for readers regarding entities likely to be affected by the NSPS
actions. Other types of entities not listed in the table could also be
affected by these NSPS actions. To determine whether your entity is
affected by any of the NSPS actions, you should carefully examine the
applicability criteria found in the final NSPS rules. If you have
questions regarding the applicability of the NSPS rules to a particular
entity, consult the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section, your state air pollution control agency with delegated
authority for NSPS, or your EPA Regional Office.
The issuance of CAA section 111(d) final EG does not impose binding
requirements directly on existing sources. The EG codified in 40 CFR
part 60, subpart OOOOc, applies to states in the development,
submittal, and implementation of state plans to establish performance
standards to reduce emissions of GHGs from designated facilities that
are existing sources on or before December 6, 2022. Under the Tribal
Authority Rule (TAR), eligible Tribes may seek approval to implement a
plan under CAA section 111(d) in a manner similar to a state. See 40
CFR part 49, subpart A. Tribes may, but are not required to, seek
approval for treatment in a manner similar to a state for purposes of
developing a Tribal implementation plan (TIP) implementing the EG
codified in 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOc. The TAR authorizes Tribes to
develop and implement their own air quality programs, or portions
thereof, under the CAA. However, it does not require Tribes to develop
a CAA program. Tribes may implement programs that are most relevant to
their air quality needs. If a Tribe does not seek and obtain the
authority from the EPA to establish a TIP, the EPA has the authority to
establish a Federal CAA section 111(d) plan for designated facilities
that are located in areas of Indian country.\1\ A Federal plan would
apply to all designated facilities located in the areas of Indian
country covered by the Federal plan unless and until the EPA approves a
TIP applicable to those facilities.
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\1\ See the EPA's website, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/tribal/tribes-approved-treatment-state-tas">https://www.epa.gov/tribal/tribes-approved-treatment-state-tas</a>, for information on those Tribes that
have treatment as a state for specific environmental regulatory
programs, administrative functions, and grant programs.
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B. Where can I get a copy of this document and other related
information?

In addition to being available in the docket, at Docket ID No. EPA-
HQ-OAR-2021-0317 located at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/">https://www.regulations.gov/</a>, an electronic
copy of this final rulemaking is available on the internet at <a href="https://www.epa.gov/controlling-air-pollution-oil-and-natural-gas-industry">https://www.epa.gov/controlling-air-pollution-oil-and-natural-gas-industry</a>.
Following signature by the EPA Administrator, the EPA will post a copy
of this final rulemaking at this same website. Following publication in
the Federal Register, the EPA will post the Federal Register version of
the final rulemaking and key technical documents at this same website.

C. Judicial Review and Administrative Review

Under Clean Air Act (CAA) section 307(b)(1), judicial review of
this final rulemaking is available only by filing a petition for review
in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit by May 7, 2024. Under CAA section 307(b)(2), the requirements
established by this final rulemaking may not be challenged separately
in any civil or criminal proceedings brought by the EPA to enforce the
requirements.
Section 307(d)(7)(B) of the CAA further provides that ``[o]nly an
objection to a rule or procedure which was raised with reasonable
specificity during the period for public comment (including any public
hearing) may be raised during judicial review.'' This section also
provides a mechanism for the EPA to convene a proceeding for
reconsideration, ``[i]f the person raising an objection can demonstrate
to the EPA that it was impracticable to raise such objection within
[the period for public comment] or if the grounds for such objection
arose after the period for public comment, (but within the time
specified for judicial review) and if such objection is of central
relevance to the outcome of the rule.'' Any person seeking to make such
a demonstration to us should submit a Petition for Reconsideration to
the Office of the Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Room 3000, WJC West Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC
20460, with a copy to both the person(s) listed in the preceding FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section, and the Associate General Counsel
for the Air and Radiation Law Office, Office of General Counsel (Mail
Code 2344A), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania
Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460.

II. Executive Summary

A. Purpose of the Regulatory Actions

On November 15, 2021, the EPA published a proposed rule (``November
2021 Proposal'') to mitigate climate-destabilizing pollution and
protect human health by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and VOC emissions
from the oil and natural gas industry,\2\ specifically the Crude Oil
and Natural Gas source category.3 4 In the November

[[Page 16823]]

2021 Proposal, the EPA proposed new standards of performance under
section 111(b) of the CAA for GHGs (in the form of methane limitations)
and VOC emissions from new, modified, and reconstructed sources in this
source category, as well as revisions to standards of performance
already codified at 40 CFR part 60, subparts OOOO and OOOOa. The EPA
also proposed EG under section 111(d) of the CAA for GHGs emissions (in
the form of methane limitations) from existing sources (designated
facilities).\5\ The new CAA section 111 NSPS and EG would be codified
in 40 CFR part 60 at subpart OOOOb (NSPS OOOOb) and subpart OOOOc (EG
OOOOc), respectively. The EPA also proposed several related actions
stemming from the joint resolution of Congress, adopted on June 30,
2021, under the CRA disapproving the EPA's final rule titled, ``Oil and
Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and
Modified Sources Review,'' September 14, 2020 (``2020 Policy Rule'').
Lastly, in the November 2021 Proposal the EPA proposed a protocol under
the general provisions for OGI.
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\2\ The EPA characterizes the oil and natural gas industry
operations as being generally composed of four segments: (1)
extraction and production of crude oil and natural gas (``oil and
natural gas production''), (2) natural gas processing, (3) natural
gas transmission and storage, and (4) natural gas distribution.
\3\ ``Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and
Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil
and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review.'' Proposed rule. 86 FR 63110,
November 15, 2021.
\4\ The EPA defines the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source
category to mean: (1) crude oil production, which includes the well
and extends to the point of custody transfer to the crude oil
transmission pipeline or any other forms of transportation; and (2)
natural gas production, processing, transmission, and storage, which
include the well and extend to, but do not include, the local
distribution company custody transfer station, commonly referred to
as the ``city-gate.''
\5\ The term ``designated facility'' means ``any existing
facility which emits a designated pollutant and which would be
subject to a standard of performance for that pollutant if the
existing facility were an affected facility.'' See 40 CFR 60.21a(b).
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On December 6, 2022, the EPA published a supplemental proposed rule
(``December 2022 Supplemental Proposal'') that was composed of two main
additions.\6\ First, the EPA updated, strengthened, and expanded on the
NSPS OOOOb standards proposed in November 2021 under CAA section 111(b)
for GHGs (in the form of methane limitations) and VOC emissions from
new, modified, and reconstructed facilities. Second, the EPA updated,
strengthened, and expanded the presumptive standards proposed for EG
OOOOc in the November 2021 Proposal as part of the CAA section 111(d)
EG for GHGs emissions (in the form of methane limitations) from
designated facilities. For purposes of EG OOOOc, the EPA also proposed
the implementation requirements for state plans developed to limit GHGs
pollution (in the form of methane limitations) from designated
facilities in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category under CAA
section 111(d).
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\6\ ``Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and
Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil
and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review.'' Supplemental notice of
proposed rulemaking. 87 FR 74702, December 6, 2022.
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The purpose of this final rulemaking is to finalize these multiple
actions to reduce air emissions from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas
source category. First, the EPA finalizes NSPS OOOOb regulating GHG (in
the form of a limitation on emissions of methane) and VOCs emissions
for the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category pursuant to CAA
section 111(b)(1)(B). Second, the EPA finalizes the presumptive
standards in EG OOOOc to limit GHGs emissions (in the form of methane
limitations) from designated facilities in the Crude Oil and Natural
Gas source category, as well as requirements under the CAA section
111(d) for states to follow in developing, submitting, and implementing
state plans to establish performance standards. Third, the EPA
finalizes several related actions stemming from the joint resolution of
Congress, adopted on June 30, 2021, under the CRA, disapproving the
2020 Policy Rule. Fourth, the EPA finalizes a protocol under the
general provisions of 40 CFR part 60 for OGI.
These final actions stem from the EPA's authority and obligation
under CAA section 111 to directly regulate categories of new stationary
sources that cause or contribute to endangerment from air pollution and
to promulgate EG for states to follow in regulating existing sources
(designated facilities) in the source category. This final rulemaking
takes a significant step forward in mitigating climate-destabilizing
pollution and protecting human health by reducing GHG and VOC emissions
from the oil and natural gas industry, specifically the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas source category. These mitigations are based on proven,
cost-effective technologies already required by prior EPA regulations
or states' regulations or deployed by industry leaders to reduce this
dangerous pollution. The final rules will also encourage the deployment
of innovative technologies that currently exist to rapidly and cost-
effectively detect and reduce methane pollution and promote further
innovation that is already under way to find even more efficient and
effective ways to mitigate this pollution. Because methane is the main
component of natural gas, the rules also result in more saleable
product.
The oil and natural gas industry is the United States' largest
industrial emitter of methane, a highly potent GHG. Emissions of
methane from human activities are responsible for about one-third of
the warming due to well-mixed GHGs and constitute the second most
important warming agent arising from human activity after carbon
dioxide (CO<INF>2</INF>).\7\ According to the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), strong, rapid, and sustained methane
reductions are critical to reducing near-term disruption of the climate
system as well as a vital complement to reductions in other GHGs that
are needed to limit the long-term extent of climate change and its
destructive impacts. The oil and natural gas industry also emits other
harmful pollutants in varying concentrations and amounts, including
CO<INF>2</INF>, VOC, sulfur dioxide (SO<INF>2</INF>), nitrogen oxides
(NO<INF>X</INF>), hydrogen sulfide (H<INF>2</INF>S), carbon disulfide
(CS<INF>2</INF>), and carbonyl sulfide (COS), as well as benzene,
toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (this group is commonly referred to
as ``BTEX''), and n-hexane.
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\7\ A well-mixed gas is one with an atmospheric lifetime longer
than a year or two, which allows the gas to be mixed around the
world.
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Under the authority of CAA section 111, this rulemaking finalizes
comprehensive standards of performance for GHG emissions (in the form
of methane limitations) and VOC emissions for new, modified, and
reconstructed sources in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category,
including sources located in the production, processing, and
transmission and storage segments. For designated facilities, this
rulemaking finalizes EG containing presumptive standards for GHG in the
form of methane limitations. States must follow these EG to submit to
the EPA plans that establish standards of performance for designated
facilities and provide for implementation and enforcement of such
standards. The EPA will provide support for states in developing their
plans to reduce methane emissions from designated facilities within the
Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category. Under the TAR, eligible
Tribes may seek approval to implement a plan under CAA section 111(d)
in a manner similar to a state. See 40 CFR part 49, subpart A. Tribes
may, but are not required to, seek approval for treatment in a manner
similar to a state for purposes of developing a TIP implementing the EG
codified in 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOc. The TAR authorizes Tribes to
develop and implement one or more of their own air quality programs, or
portions thereof, under the CAA. However, it does not require Tribes to
develop a CAA program. Tribes may implement programs that are most
relevant to their air quality needs. If a Tribe does not seek and
obtain the authority from the EPA to establish a TIP, the EPA has the
authority to establish a Federal CAA section 111(d)

[[Page 16824]]

plan for designated facilities that are located in areas of Indian
country.\8\ A Federal plan would apply to all designated facilities
located in the areas of Indian country covered by the Federal plan
unless and until the EPA approves a TIP applicable to those facilities.
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\8\ See the EPA website, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/tribal/tribes-approved-treatment-state-tas">https://www.epa.gov/tribal/tribes-approved-treatment-state-tas</a>, for information on those Tribes that
have treatment as a state for specific environmental regulatory
programs, administrative functions, and grant programs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The EPA is finalizing these actions in accordance with its legal
obligations and authorities following a review directed by Executive
Order (E.O.) 13990, ``Protecting Public Health and the Environment and
Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,'' issued on January 20,
2021. These final actions address the harmful consequences of climate
change, which is already resulting in severe and growing human and
economic costs within the United States (and globally too). According
to the IPCC AR6 assessment, ``It is unequivocal that human influence
has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes
in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.'' The
IPCC AR6 assessment states that these changes have led to increases in
heat waves and wildfire weather, reductions in air quality, more
intense hurricanes and rainfall events, and rising sea level. These
changes, along with future projected changes, endanger the physical
survival, health, economic well-being, and quality of life of people
living in the United States (U.S.), especially those in the most
vulnerable communities.
Methane is both the main component of natural gas and a potent GHG.
Using one standard metric (the 100-year global warming potential (GWP),
which is a measure of the climate impact of emissions of 1 ton of a GHG
over 100 years relative to the impact of the emissions of 1 ton of
CO<INF>2</INF> over the same time frame), methane has about 30 times as
much climate impact as CO<INF>2</INF>. Because methane has a shorter
lifetime than CO<INF>2</INF>, it has a larger relative impact over
shorter time frames, and a smaller one over longer time frames: the
IPCC AR6 assessment found that ``Over time scales of 10 to 20 years,
the global temperature response to a year's worth of current emissions
of SLCFs [short lived climate forcers] is at least as large as that due
to a year's worth of CO<INF>2</INF> emissions.'' \9\ The IPCC estimated
that, depending on the reference scenario, collective reductions in
these SLCFs (methane, ozone precursors, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs))
could reduce warming by 0.2 degrees Celsius ([deg]C) (more than one-
third of a degree Fahrenheit ([deg]F) in 2040 and 0.8 [deg]C (almost
1.5 [deg]F) by the end of the century. As methane is the most important
SLCF, this makes methane mitigation one of the best opportunities for
reducing near-term warming. Emissions from human activities have
already more than doubled atmospheric methane concentrations since
1750, and that concentration has been growing larger at record rates in
recent years.\10\ In the absence of additional reduction policies,
methane emissions are projected to continue rising through at least
2040.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\9\ However, the IPCC AR6 assessment cautioned that ``[t]he
effects of the SLCFs decay rapidly over the first few decades after
pulse emission. Consequently, on time scales longer than about 30
years, the net long-term temperature effects of sectors and regions
are dominated by CO<INF>2</INF>.''
\10\ Naik, V., S. Szopa, B. Adhikary, P. Artaxo, T. Berntsen,
W.D. Collins, S. Fuzzi, L. Gallardo, A. Kiendler 41 Scharr, Z.
Klimont, H. Liao, N. Unger, P. Zanis, 2021, Short-Lived Climate
Forcers. In: Climate Change 42 2021: The Physical Science Basis.
Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of
the 43 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte,
V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. 44 P[eacute]an, S. Berger,
N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E.
Lonnoy, J.B.R. 45 Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O.
Yelek[ccedil]i, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University 46
Press. In Press.
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Methane's radiative efficiency means that immediate reductions in
methane emissions, including from sources in the Crude Oil and Natural
Gas source category, can help reduce near-term warming. As natural gas
is composed primarily of methane, every natural gas leak or intentional
release of natural gas through venting or other processes constitutes a
release of methane. Reducing human-caused methane emissions, such as
controlling natural gas leaks and releases through the measures in this
final action, is critical to addressing climate change and its effects.
See section III of this preamble for further discussion on the air
emissions from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category climate
change, including discussion of the impacts of GHGs, VOCs, and
SO<INF>2</INF> emissions on public health and welfare.
Methane and VOC emissions from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source
category result from a variety of industry operations across the supply
chain. As natural gas moves through the necessarily interconnected
system of exploration, production, storage, processing, and
transmission that brings it from wellhead to commerce, emissions
primarily result from intentional venting, unintentional gas carry-
through (e.g., vortexing from separator drain, improper liquid level
settings, liquid level control valve on an upstream separator or
scrubber does not seal properly at the end of an automated liquid
dumping event, inefficient separation of gas and liquid phases
occurring upstream of tanks allowing some gas carry-through), routine
maintenance, unintentional fugitive emissions, flaring, malfunctions,
abnormal process conditions, and system upsets. These emissions are
associated with a range of specific equipment and practices, including
leaking valves, connectors, and other components at well sites and
compressor stations; leaks and vented emissions from storage vessels;
releases from natural gas-driven pumps and natural gas-driven process
controllers; liquids unloading at well sites; and venting or under-
performing flaring of associated gas from oil wells. But technical
innovations have produced a range of technologies and best practices to
monitor, eliminate, or minimize these emissions, which in many cases
have the benefit of reducing multiple pollutants at once and recovering
saleable product. These technologies and best practices have been
deployed by individual oil and natural gas companies, required by state
regulations, or reflected in regulations issued by the EPA and other
Federal agencies.
In developing this final rulemaking, the EPA applied the latest
available information to finalize the analyses presented in the
December 2022 Supplemental Proposal. This latest information provided
additional insights into lessons learned from states' regulatory
efforts, the emission reduction efforts of leading companies, the
continued development of new and developing technologies, and
information and data from peer-reviewed literature and emission
measurement efforts across the U.S.
In both the November 2021 Proposal and the December 2022
Supplemental Proposal, the EPA solicited comment on various aspects of
the proposed rules. This final rulemaking responds to the nearly one
million total public comments the Agency received. A wide range of
stakeholders, including state and local governments, Tribal nations,
representatives of the oil and natural gas industry, communities
affected by oil and gas pollution, environmental and public health
organizations, submitted public comments on both the November 2021
Proposal and the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal. Following the
November 2021 Proposal, over 470,000 public comments were submitted.
After the December 2022 Supplemental

[[Page 16825]]

Proposal, over 515,000 additional public comments were submitted. Many
commenters representing diverse perspectives expressed general support
for the proposals and requested that the EPA further strengthen the
proposed rules and make them more comprehensive. Other commenters
highlighted implementation or cost concerns related to elements of both
proposals or provided specific data and information that the EPA was
able to use to refine or revise several of the proposed standards
included in the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal.
This final action also builds on extensive engagement with states,
Tribes, and a broad range of stakeholders. The EPA conducted
stakeholder trainings after both the November 2021 Proposal and the
December 2022 Supplemental Proposal for communities with environmental
justice (EJ) concerns, Tribes, and small businesses. The EPA held 3-day
virtual public hearings for both the November 2021 Proposal and the
December 2022 Supplemental Proposal with over 600 speakers and hundreds
of viewers on livestream. Tribal consultations were completed after the
November 2021 Proposal at the request of the Northern Arapahoe Tribe,
Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), and Eastern Shoshone
Tribe.\11\ Additional Tribal consultation was completed at the request
of MHA Nation and an informational meeting was held with the Ute Tribe
after the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal.\12\ Through this
stakeholder engagement, the EPA heard from diverse voices and
perspectives, all of which provided ideas and information that helped
shape and inform this final rulemaking.
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\11\ See Memorandum in EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317.
\12\ See Memorandum in EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317.
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In this final rulemaking, the EPA is finalizing updates to various
aspects of the proposed rules because of the information received
through the public comment process. For example, after review of the
comments, the EPA is finalizing updates to allow owners and operators
the option to use advanced methane monitoring technologies for
detecting fugitive emissions. All stakeholders supported allowing for
the use of alternative technologies and provided the EPA with
constructive feedback and information to help finalize this aspect of
the rulemaking, along with improvements that provide greater
flexibility for owners and operators while ensuring these technologies
are used in an effective way to detect methane emissions. Among other
things, the EPA is finalizing changes from the December 2022
Supplemental Proposal that will allow owners and operators to use
multiple advanced technologies in combination, and facilitate the use
of the best advanced technologies that we know of by streamlining
certain of the proposed monitoring requirements associated with their
use. The EPA is also finalizing an efficient pathway for demonstrating
that new technologies meet the performance requirements established
under this rulemaking, and approving their use under this program. The
final rulemaking allows for either a periodic screening approach or a
continuous monitoring approach. The EPA believes this program will
allow owners and operators to leverage advanced technologies that are
already available to detect methane emissions rapidly with accuracy, as
well as to incorporate promising new technologies that are emerging in
this rapidly evolving field.
As a result of information provided through the public comment
process, the EPA is also finalizing revisions to the proposed
requirements for new sources to limit routine flaring of associated
gas. During the comment period, the EPA received extensive information
regarding alternatives to routine flaring, state-level requirements to
limit or prohibit routine flaring, and commitments that owners and
operators have already made voluntarily to phase out routine flaring in
the near future. Based on this information and the EPA's updated BSER
analysis, the EPA is finalizing requirements that will phase out and
eventually prohibit routine flaring of associated gas from newly
constructed wells that are developed after the effective date of this
rule. These requirements include reasonable exemptions for certain
temporary and emergency uses of flaring, and a transition period to
allow owners and operators adequate time to incorporate this
requirement into their development plans and to deploy any necessary
equipment and controls. For a subcategory of existing wells (with
documented methane of 40 tons per year (tpy) or less), the EPA is
finalizing modifications to its December 2022 Supplemental Proposal to
allow routine flaring. This approach reflects information the EPA
received during this rulemaking, and the EPA's updated BSER analysis,
that indicates that alternatives to routine flaring at such wells are
generally costly and could be technically challenging to implement,
while achieving relatively small emission reductions. For higher-
emitting existing (above 40 tpy methane), modified, and reconstructed
wells, the EPA is finalizing the provisions proposed in the December
2022 Supplemental Proposal limiting routine flaring to situations in
which a sales line to collect the associated gas is not available, and
the owner and operator has submitted a demonstration that other
alternatives to routine flaring are not available due to technical
infeasibility. With the updates made in this final rulemaking in
response to comments, the EPA believes that the final rules and
emission guidelines provide an approach to limiting routine flaring
from associated gas that achieves significant reductions in emissions,
while also providing owners and operators with flexibility to utilize
routine flaring where needed and sufficient lead time to implement
alternatives to routine flaring at newly developed wells.
Further, the EPA is finalizing, with certain revisions,
requirements proposed in the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal to
monitor flares to ensure proper operation and assure continual
compliance. Improperly operating flares are a well-documented large
source of emissions, and requiring operators to monitor and fix these
problems will yield significant methane reductions.
In addition, the EPA is finalizing a Super Emitter Program as part
of this rulemaking that requires owners and operators to take
appropriate action to investigate very large emissions events upon
receiving from the EPA a notification from a certified entity, and if
necessary, take steps to ensure compliance with the applicable
regulation(s). The EPA has made important modifications to this program
based on comments received on the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal.
Public comments informed the EPA that there is widespread recognition
of the need to address super-emitters, that it is critical for the EPA
to have a central role in the program, and that timely information-
sharing and response is key to being able to achieve emission
reductions. As a result, the final Super Emitter Program provides a
central role for the EPA in receiving notifications from certified
third parties and verifying that these notifications are complete and
have properly documented the existence of a super-emitting event before
sending them to the appropriate owner or operator. In addition, as
proposed, the EPA will have a central role in approving monitoring
technologies, certifying and de-certifying notifiers, requiring that
third parties submit

[[Page 16826]]

notifications within a limited timeframe, and obligating operators to
subsequently respond in a timely manner. These targeted changes for the
Super Emitter Program are intended to ensure that the program operates
with a high degree of accuracy, integrity, and transparency, while
providing owners and operators with prompt and reliable notifications
of super-emitting events that may require follow-up investigation and
remediation. See sections X and XI of this preamble for a full summary
and rationale of the changes since proposal.
After careful consideration of the public comments, the EPA is
finalizing other aspects of the rulemaking as proposed. For example,
the EPA is finalizing the NSPS and EG for process controllers (formerly
referred to as pneumatic controllers) as proposed. For both the NSPS
and EG, process controllers are required to meet a methane and VOC
emission rate of zero.\13\ Another area of the rulemaking that the EPA
is finalizing as proposed is liquids unloading. These sources are
required to comply with best management practices for every well that
undergoes liquids unloading that results in vented emissions. The EPA
is also finalizing standards for well completions and sweetening units
as proposed. See sections X and XI of this preamble for a full summary
and rationale of the areas of the rulemaking that are being finalized
as proposed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\13\ See tables 3 and 4 of this preamble for a summary of
process controller standards in Alaska.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The EPA conducted an analysis of EJ in the development of this
final rulemaking and sought to ensure equitable treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color,
national origin, or income in the process. The EPA engaged and
consulted representatives of frontline communities that are directly
affected by and particularly vulnerable to the climate and health
impacts of pollution from this source category through interactions
such as webinars, listening sessions, and meetings. These opportunities
allowed the EPA to hear directly from the public, especially
overburdened and underserved communities, on the development of the
rulemaking and to factor these concerns into the rulemaking. The
extensive pollution reduction measures in this final rulemaking will
collectively reduce the emissions of a suite of harmful pollutants and
their associated health impacts in communities adjacent to these
emission sources. A full discussion and summary of engagement with
pertinent stakeholders can be found in section VII of the preamble. A
full discussion of the analysis of EJ is found in section XVI.F of the
preamble.
In this final rulemaking, the EPA has conducted a comprehensive
analysis of the available data from emission sources in the Crude Oil
and Natural Gas source category, the latest available information on
control measures and techniques, and information submitted by
stakeholders through the public comment process to identify achievable,
cost-effective measures to significantly reduce emissions, consistent
with the requirements of section 111 of the CAA. This final rulemaking
will lead to significant and cost-effective reductions in climate and
health-harming pollution and encourage development and deployment of
innovative technologies to further reduce this pollution in the Crude
Oil and Natural Gas source category.
As described in more detail below, the EPA recognizes that several
states and other Federal agencies currently regulate the oil and
natural gas industry. The EPA also recognizes that these state and
other Federal agency regulatory programs have matured since the EPA
began implementing the current NSPS requirements in 2012 and 2016. The
EPA further acknowledges the technical innovations that the oil and
natural gas industry has made during the past decade; this industry
operates at a fast pace and changes constantly as technology evolves.
The EPA commends these efforts and recognizes states for their
innovative standards, alternative compliance options, and
implementation strategies, and these final actions build upon progress
made by certain states and Federal agencies in reducing GHG and VOC
emissions. See preamble section VI for further discussion of Related
State Actions and Other Federal Actions Regulating Oil and Natural Gas
Sources and Industry and Voluntary Actions to Address Climate Change.
As the Federal agency with primary responsibility to protect human
health and the environment, the EPA has the unique responsibility and
authority to regulate harmful air pollutants emitted by the Crude Oil
and Natural Gas source category. The EPA recognizes that states and
other Federal agencies regulate in accordance with their respective
legal authorities and within their respective jurisdictions but
collectively do not fully and consistently address the range of sources
and emission reduction measures contained in this final rulemaking.
Direct Federal regulation of methane from new, reconstructed, and
modified sources in this category, combined with approved state plans
that are consistent with the EPA's EG presumptive standards for
designated facilities (existing sources), will help reduce both
climate- and other health-harming pollution from a large number of
sources that are either unregulated or from which additional, cost-
effective reductions are available, level the regulatory playing field,
and help promote technological innovation.
Included in this final rulemaking are the final new subparts NSPS
OOOOb and EG OOOOc and amendatory regulatory text for NSPS OOOO, NSPS
OOOOa, and 40 CFR part 60, subpart KKK (NSPS KKK). The public docket
for this rulemaking also includes the full text redline versions of
NSPS OOOO, NSPS OOOOa, and NSPS KKK amendments.\14\ In addition, the
EPA is providing a Response to Comments (RTC) document and updated
documents including the technical support document (TSD), supporting
information collection request (ICR) burden statements, and regulatory
impact analysis (RIA) that seeks to account for the full impacts of
these proposed actions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\14\ Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Summary of the Major Provisions of This Regulatory Action

This final rulemaking includes four distinct groups of actions
under the CAA each of which could have been promulgated as a separate
final rule. First, pursuant to CAA section 111(b)(1)(B), the EPA has
reviewed, and is finalizing revisions to, the standards of performance
for the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category published in 2012 and
2016 and amended in 2020, codified at 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOO--
``Standards of Performance for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities for
Which Construction, Modification, or Reconstruction Commenced After
August 23, 2011, and on or Before September 18, 2015'' (2012 NSPS) and
subpart OOOOa--``Standards of Performance for Crude Oil and Natural Gas
Facilities for which Construction, Modification or Reconstruction
Commenced After September 18, 2015'' (2016 NSPS OOOOa). Specifically,
the EPA is updating, strengthening, and expanding the current
requirements under CAA section 111(b) for methane and VOC emissions
from sources that commenced construction, modification, or
reconstruction after December 6, 2022. These final standards of
performance will be in a new subpart, 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOb
(NSPS OOOOb), and include standards for emission sources previously not
regulated under the 2012 NSPS OOOO and 2016 NSPS OOOOa.

[[Page 16827]]

Second, pursuant to CAA section 111(d), the EPA is finalizing the
first nationwide EG for states to limit methane pollution from
designated facilities in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category.
The EG being finalized in this rulemaking will be in a new subpart, 40
CFR part 60, subpart OOOOc (EG OOOOc). The EG finalizes presumptive
standards for GHG emissions (in the form of methane limitations) from
designated facilities that commenced construction, reconstruction, or
modification on or before December 6, 2022, and implementation
requirements designed to inform states in the development, submittal,
and implementation of state plans that are required to establish
standards of performance for emissions of GHGs from their designated
facilities in the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category. The EPA is
also finalizing regulatory language in NSPS OOOO, NSPS OOOOa, and NSPS
KKK to provide clarity on when sources transition from being subject to
these NSPS and become subject to a state or Federal plan implementing
EG OOOOc.
Third, the EPA is taking several related actions stemming from the
joint resolution of Congress, adopted on June 30, 2021, under the CRA,
disapproving the EPA's final rule titled, ``Oil and Natural Gas Sector:
Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources
Review,'' 85 FR 57018 (September 14, 2020) (``2020 Policy Rule''). As
explained in section XII of this document, the EPA is finalizing
amendments to the 2016 NSPS OOOOa to address (1) certain
inconsistencies between the VOC and methane standards resulting from
the disapproval of the 2020 Policy Rule and (2) certain determinations
made in the final rule titled, ``Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission
Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources
Reconsideration,'' 85 FR 57398 (September 15, 2020) (``2020 Technical
Rule''), specifically with respect to fugitive emissions monitoring at
low production well sites and gathering and boosting stations. With
respect to the latter, as described below, the EPA is finalizing the
rescission of provisions of the 2020 Technical Rule that were not
supported by the record for that rule or by our subsequent information
and analysis.
In addition, in this final rulemaking the EPA updates the NSPS OOOO
and NSPS OOOOa provisions in the CFR to reflect the CRA resolution's
disapproval of the final 2020 Policy Rule, specifically, the
reinstatement of the NSPS OOOO and NSPS OOOOa requirements that the
2020 Policy Rule repealed but that came back into effect immediately
upon enactment of the CRA resolution. It should be noted that these
requirements have come back into effect already, even prior to these
updates to CFR text to reflect them.\15\ The EPA waited to make these
updates to the CFR text until the final rule simply because it was more
efficient and clearer to amend the CFR once at the end of this
rulemaking process to account for all changes to the 2012 NSPS OOOO (77
FR 49490, August 16, 2012) and 2016 NSPS OOOOa at the same time.
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\15\ See Congressional Review Act Resolution to Disapprove EPA's
2020 Oil and Gas Policy Rule Questions and Answers (June 30, 2021)
available at <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-07/qa_cra_for_2020_oil_and_gas_policy_rule.6.30.2021.pdf">https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-07/qa_cra_for_2020_oil_and_gas_policy_rule.6.30.2021.pdf</a>.
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Fourth, the EPA is finalizing a protocol for the use of OGI in leak
detection being finalized as appendix K to 40 CFR part 60 (referred to
hereafter as appendix K). While this protocol is being finalized in
this action, the applicability of the protocol is broader. The protocol
is applicable to facilities when specified in a referencing subpart to
help determine the presence and location of leaks; it is not currently
applicable for use in direct emission rate measurements from sources.
The protocol does not on its own apply to any sources. For NSPS OOOOb
and EG OOOOc, we are finalizing the use of the protocol for application
at natural gas processing plants. The protocol may be applied to other
sources only when incorporated through rulemaking to a specific
subpart.
Each group of actions just described is severable from the other.
In addition, within each group of actions, the requirements governing
each emission source are separate from and so severable from the
requirements for each other emission source. Specifically, for each
emission source, the EPA separately analyzed and determined the
appropriate BSER. And for each emission source, the EPA conducted a
separate analysis for new sources governed by the NSPS and for existing
sources covered by the EG. Each of the requirements in this final rule
is functionally independent--i.e., may operate in practice
independently of the other standards of performance.
As CAA section 111(a)(1) requires, the standards of performance
being finalized in this rulemaking reflect ``the degree of emission
limitation achievable through the application of the best system of
emission reduction [BSER] which (taking into account the cost of
achieving such reduction and any nonair quality health and
environmental impact and energy requirement) the Administrator
determines has been adequately demonstrated.'' \16\ This rulemaking
further finalizes EG for designated facilities, under which states must
submit plans which establish standards of performance that reflect the
degree of emission limitation achievable through application of the
BSER, as identified in the final EG. In this final rulemaking, we
evaluated new data made available to the EPA and information provided
from public comments on the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal to
update the analyses and evaluate whether revisions to the proposed BSER
should be considered. For any potential control measure evaluated in
this rulemaking, as in the December 2022 Supplemental Proposal, the EPA
evaluated the emission reductions achievable through these measures and
employed multiple approaches to evaluate the reasonableness of control
costs associated with the options under consideration. For example, in
evaluating controls for reducing VOC and methane emissions from new
sources, we considered a control measure's cost effectiveness under
both a ``single-pollutant cost effectiveness'' approach and a
``multipollutant cost effectiveness'' approach to appropriately
consider that the systems of emission reduction considered in this
rulemaking \17\ typically achieve reductions in multiple pollutants at
once and secure a multiplicity of climate and public health benefits.
For both NSPS OOOOb and EG OOOOc, we also compared: (1) the capital
costs that would be incurred through compliance with the final
standards against the industry's current level of capital expenditures
and (2) the annualized costs against the industry's estimated annual
revenues. For a detailed discussion of the EPA's consideration of this
and other BSER statutory elements, see sections IV and VIII of this

[[Page 16828]]

preamble. Table 2 summarizes the applicability dates for the four
subparts that the EPA is finalizing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\16\ The EPA notes that design, equipment, work practice, or
operational standards established under CAA section 111(h) (commonly
referred to as ``work practice standards'') reflect the ``best
technological system of continuous emission reduction'' and that
this phrasing differs from the ``best system of emission reduction''
phrase in the definition of ``standard of performance'' in CAA
section 111(a)(1). Although the differences in these phrases may be
meaningful in other contexts, for purposes of evaluating the sources
and systems of emission reduction at issue in this rulemaking, the
EPA has applied these concepts in an essentially comparable manner
because the systems of emission reduction the EPA evaluated are all
technological.
\17\ For EG OOOOc, where the pollutant is GHGs in the form of
limitations on methane, the EPA considered a control measure's cost
effectiveness under a ``single-pollutant cost effectiveness''
approach.

Table 2--Applicable Dates for Subparts Addressed in This Rulemaking \18\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subpart Source type Applicable dates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOO.... New, modified, or After August 23,
reconstructed 2011, and on or
sources. before September
18, 2015.
40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOa... New, modified, or After September
reconstructed 18, 2015, and on
sources. or before
December 6, 2022.
40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOb... New, modified, or After December 6,
reconstructed 2022.
sources.
40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOc... Existing sources.. On or before
December 6, 2022.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. New Source Performance Standards for New, Modified, and
Reconstructed Sources After December 6, 2022 (NSPS OOOOb)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\18\ See preamble section IX, ``Interaction of the Rules and
Response to Significant Comments Thereon'' for discussion on the
applicable dates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

As described in section X of this preamble, the EPA is finalizing
several changes to the BSER and the NSPS for certain affected
facilities based on a review of new data made available to the EPA and
information provided in public comments. For the other NSPS that
generally remain unchanged, the EPA is finalizing them as proposed in
the November 2021 Proposal and/or December 2022 Supplemental Proposal.
The EPA is also finalizing further justifications, flexibilities, or
clarifications, as needed, based on the public comments and other
additional information received, as described in section X of this
preamble. The NSPS applies to affected sources across the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas source category, including the production, processing,
transmission, and storage segments, for which construction,
reconstruction, or modification commenced after December 6, 2022, which
is the date of publication of the supplemental proposal for NSPS OOOOb.
In particular, this action finalizes changes to strengthen the
proposed VOC and methane standards addressing: fugitive emissions from
well sites; monitoring of control devices; super-emitters; storage
vessels; associated gas; pumps; equipment leaks at gas plants; appendix
K; centrifugal compressors; and reciprocating compressors. It generally
leaves unchanged the SO<INF>2</INF> performance standard for sweetening
units and the VOC and methane performance standards for well
completions, gas well liquids unloading operations, process
controllers, and fugitive emissions from compressor stations. A summary
of the final BSER determination and final NSPS for affected sources for
which construction, reconstruction, or modification commenced after
December 6, 2022 (NSPS OOOOb), is presented in table 2. See sections X
and XI of this preamble for a complete discussion of the changes to the
BSER determination and NSPS requirements.
The final NSPS OOOOb also includes provisions for the use of
advanced methane detection technologies that allow for periodic
screening or continuous monitoring for fugitive emissions and emissions
from covers and closed vent systems (CVS) used to route emissions to
control devices. These advanced methane detection technologies could
also be used to identify super-emitter emissions events sooner and
outside the normal periodic OGI monitoring for fugitive emissions,
control devices, covers on storage vessels, and CVS. Therefore, the EPA
is finalizing a Super Emitter Program where an owner or operator must
investigate, and if necessary, take steps to ensure compliance with the
applicable regulation(s) upon receiving certified notifications of
detected emissions that are 100 kilograms per hour (kg/hr) of methane
or greater. See section X.C of this preamble for a complete discussion
of these final provisions.
2. EG for Sources Constructed Prior to December 6, 2022 (EG OOOOc)
As described in sections X and XI of this preamble, the EPA is
finalizing several changes to the BSER determinations and presumptive
standards that were proposed under the authority of CAA section 111(d)
in the November 2021 Proposal and/or the December 2022 Supplemental
Proposal. These changes are based on a review of new data made
available to the EPA and information provided in public comments. In
the November 2021 Proposal, the EPA proposed the first nationwide EG
for GHG (in the form of methane limitations) for the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas source category, including the production, processing, and
transmission and storage segments (EG OOOOc). In the December 2022
Supplemental Proposal, the EPA proposed key implementation information
unique to the EG for stakeholders.
This action finalizes revisions to strengthen the proposed
presumptive standards for methane addressing: fugitive emissions from
well sites; monitoring of control devices; super-emitters; storage
vessels; associated gas; pumps; equipment leaks at gas plants; appendix
K; centrifugal compressors; and reciprocating compressors. It generally
leaves unchanged the presumptive standards for gas well liquids
unloading operations, process controllers, and fugitive emissions from
compressor stations. A summary of the final BSER determination and
final presumptive standards for EG OOOOc is presented in table 3. See
section X of this preamble for a complete discussion of the changes to
the BSER determination and final presumptive standards.
The final EG OOOOc also includes the same provisions described for
NSPS OOOOb that allow for the use of alternative test methods using
advanced methane detection technologies for periodic screening or
continuous monitoring for fugitive emissions and emissions from covers
and CVS used to route emissions to control devices. Finally, the EPA is
also finalizing in the final EG OOOOc presumptive requirements for
state plans to include a Super Emitter Program, where an owner or
operator must investigate, and if necessary, take steps to ensure
compliance with the applicable regulation(s) upon receiving certified
notifications of detected emissions that are 100 kilograms per hour
(kg/hr) of methane or greater. See section X of this preamble for a
complete discussion of these final provisions.

[[Page 16829]]

As stated in the November 2021 Proposal \19\ and the December 2022
Supplemental Proposal,\20\ when the EPA establishes NSPS for a source
category, the EPA is required to issue EG to reduce emissions of
certain pollutants from existing sources in that same source category.
In such circumstances, under CAA section 111(d), the EPA must issue
regulations to establish procedures under which states submit plans to
establish, implement, and enforce standards of performance for existing
sources for certain air pollutants to which a Federal NSPS would apply
if such existing source were a new source. Thus, the issuance of CAA
section 111(d) final EG does not impose binding requirements directly
on existing sources but instead provides requirements for states in
developing their plans. There is a fundamental requirement under CAA
section 111(d) that a state's standards of performance in its state
plan submittal are no less stringent than the presumptive standard
determined by the EPA, which derives from the definition of ``standard
of performance'' in CAA section 111(a)(1). Further, as provided in CAA
section 111(d), a state may choose to take into account remaining
useful life and other factors (RULOF) in applying a standard of
performance to a particular source, consistent with the CAA, the EPA's
implementing regulations, and the final EG.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\19\ See 86 FR 63117 (November 15, 2021).
\20\ See 87 FR 74702 (December 6, 2022).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The EPA is finalizing changes to the BSER determinations and the
degree of limitation achievable through application of the BSER for
certain existing equipment, processes, and activities across the Crude
Oil and Natural Gas source category. Those changes are discussed in
section X of this preamble. Section XIII of this preamble discusses the
components of EG, including the steps, requirements, and considerations
associated with the development, submittal, and implementation of
state, Tribal, and Federal plans, as appropriate. For the EG, the EPA
is translating the degree of emission limitation achievable through
application of the BSER (i.e., level of stringency) into presumptive
standards that states may use in the development of state plans for
specific designated facilities. In doing so, the EPA has formatted the
final EG OOOOc such that if a state chooses to adopt these presumptive
standards as the standards of performance in a state plan, the EPA
could approve such a plan as meeting the requirements of CAA section
111(d) and the finalized EG, if the plan meets all other applicable
requirements. In this way, the presumptive standards included in the
final EG OOOOc serve a function similar to that of a model rule,\21\
because they are intended to assist states in developing their plan
submissions by providing states with a starting point for standards
that are based on general industry parameters and assumptions. The EPA
anticipates that providing these presumptive standards will create a
streamlined approach for states in developing state plans and for the
EPA in evaluating state plans. However, the EPA's action on each state
plan submission is carried out via rulemaking, which includes public
notice and comment. Inclusion of presumptive standards in the final EG
does not predetermine the outcomes of any future rulemaking on state
plan submittals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\21\ The presumptive standards are not the same as a Federal
plan under CAA section 111(d)(2). The EPA has an obligation to
promulgate a Federal plan if a state fails to submit a satisfactory
plan. In such circumstances, the final EG and presumptive standards
would serve as a guide to the development of a Federal plan. See
section XIII.F of this document for information on Federal plans.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Designated facilities located in Indian country would not be
encompassed within a state's CAA section 111(d) plan. Instead, an
eligible Tribe that has one or more designated facilities located in
its area of Indian country would have the opportunity, but not the
obligation, to seek authority and submit a plan that establishes
standards of performance for those facilities on its Tribal lands. If a
Tribe does not submit a plan, or if the EPA does not approve a Tribe's
plan, then the EPA has the authority to establish a Federal plan for
designated facilities located within that Tribe's area of Indian
country. A summary of the final EG for existing sources (EG OOOOc) for
the oil and natural gas sector is presented in table 4. See section X
of this preamble for a complete discussion of the final EG
requirements.
3. Final Amendments to 2016 NSPS OOOOa, and CRA-Related CFR Updates
The EPA is finalizing modifications to the 2016 NSPS OOOOa to
address certain amendments to the VOC standards for sources in the
production and processing segments finalized in the 2020 Technical
Rule. Because the methane standards for the production and processing
segments and all standards for the transmission and storage segment
were removed from the 2016 NSPS OOOOa via the 2020 Policy Rule prior to
the finalization of the 2020 Technical Rule, the latter amendments
apply only to the 2016 NSPS OOOOa VOC standards for the production and
processing segments. In this final rulemaking, the EPA also is applying
some of the 2020 Technical Rule amendments to the methane standards for
all industry segments and to VOC standards for the transmission and
storage segment in the 2016 NSPS OOOOa. These amendments are associated
with the requirements for well completions, pumps, closed vent systems,
fugitive emissions, alternative means of emission limitation (AMELs),
and onshore natural gas processing plants, as well as other technical
clarifications and corrections. The EPA is also finalizing a repeal of
the amendments in the 2020 Technical Rule that (1) exempted low
production well sites from monitoring fugitive emissions and (2)
changed monitoring of VOC emissions at gathering and boosting
compressor stations from quarterly to semiannual, which currently
applies only to VOC standards (not methane standards) from the
production and processing segments. A summary of the final amendments
to the 2016 OOOOa NSPS is presented in section XII of this preamble.
Lastly, in this rulemaking, the EPA updates the NSPS OOOO and OOOOa
provisions in the CFR to reflect the CRA resolution's disapproval of
the final 2020 Policy Rule, specifically, the reinstatement of the NSPS
OOOO and OOOOa requirements that the 2020 Policy Rule repealed but that
came back into effect immediately upon enactment of the CRA resolution.
The EPA waited to make the updates to the CFR text until the final
rulemaking because it would be more efficient and clearer to amend the
CFR once at the end of this rulemaking process to account for all
changes to the 2012 NSPS OOOO and 2016 NSPS OOOOa at the same time,
rather than make piecemeal amendments to the CFR.

[[Page 16830]]

Table 3--Summary of Final BSER and Final New Source Performance
Standards for GHGs and VOCs (NSPS OOOOb) \22\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final new source
performance
Affected source Final BSER standards for GHGs
and VOCs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fugitive Emissions: Single Quarterly AVO Quarterly AVO
Wellhead Only Well Sites and monitoring surveys. First
Small Well Sites. surveys. attempt at repair
within 15 days
after detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 15
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Multi- Quarterly AVO Quarterly AVO
wellhead Only Well Sites (2 or monitoring surveys. First
more wellheads). surveys. attempt at repair
AND............... within 15 days
Monitoring and after detecting
repair based on fugitive
semiannual emissions. Final
monitoring using repair within 15
OGI \2\. days after first
attempt.
Semiannual OGI
monitoring
(Optional
semiannual EPA
Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Well Sites Bimonthly AVO Bimonthly AVO
with Major Production and monitoring surveys. First
Processing Equipment and surveys (i.e., attempt at repair
Centralized Production every other within 15 days
Facilities. month). after detecting
AND............... fugitive
Monitoring and emissions. Final
repair based on repair within 15
quarterly days after first
monitoring using attempt.
OGI. AND
Well sites with
specified major
production and
processing
equipment:
Quarterly OGI
monitoring.
(Optional
quarterly EPA
Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Compressor Monthly AVO Monthly AVO
Stations. monitoring surveys. First
surveys. attempt at repair
AND............... within 15 days
Monitoring and after detecting
repair based on fugitive
quarterly emissions. Final
monitoring using repair within 15
OGI. days after first
attempt.
AND
Quarterly OGI
monitoring.
(Optional
quarterly EPA
Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive Emissions: Well Sites Monitoring and Annual OGI
and Compressor Stations on repair based on monitoring.
Alaska North Slope. annual monitoring (Optional annual
using OGI. EPA Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Storage Vessels: A Single Capture and route 95 percent
Storage Vessel or Tank Battery to a control reduction of VOC
with PTE \4\ of 6 tpy or more device. and methane.
of VOC or PTE of 20 tpy or more
of methane.
Process Controllers: Natural Gas- Use of zero- VOC and GHG
driven. emissions (methane)
controllers. emission rate of
zero.
Process Controllers: Alaska (at Use of low-bleed Natural gas bleed
sites where onsite power is not process rate no greater
available--continuous bleed controllers. than 6 scfh.\5\
natural gas-driven).
Process Controllers: Alaska (at Monitor and repair OGI monitoring and
sites where onsite power is not through fugitive repair of
available--intermittent natural emissions program. emissions from
gas-driven). controller
malfunctions.

[[Page 16831]]

Well Liquids Unloading.......... Best management Perform best
practices to management
minimize or practices to
eliminate methane minimize or
and VOC emissions eliminate methane
to the maximum and VOC emissions
extent possible. to the maximum
extent possible
from liquids
unloading events
that vent
emissions to the
atmosphere.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors Capture and route 95 percent
(except for those located at emissions from reduction of
well sites). the wet seal methane and VOC
fluid degassing emissions.
system to a
control device.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors (Optional) Monitoring and
(except for those located at Monitoring and repair to
well sites): Self-contained repair to maintain
centrifugal compressors and wet maintain volumetric flow
seal compressors equipped with volumetric flow rate at or below
a mechanical seal. rate at or below 3 scfm per
3 scfm. compressor seal.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors (Optional) Monitoring and
(except for those located at Monitoring and repair to
well sites): Alaska North Slope repair to maintain
centrifugal compressors maintain volumetric flow
equipped with a seal oil volumetric flow rate at or below
recovery system. rate at or below 9 scfm per
9 scfm per seal. compressor seal.
Dry Seal Centrifugal Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair to repair of seal to
well sites). maintain maintain
volumetric flow volumetric flow
rate at or below rate at or below
10 scfm \7\ per 10 scfm per
seal. compressor seal.
Reciprocating Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair or replace repair or
well sites). the reciprocating replacement of
compressor rod rod packing to
packing in order maintain
to maintain volumetric flow
volumetric flow rate at or below
rate at or below 2 scfm per
2 scfm per cylinder.
cylinder.
Pumps: Natural gas-driven....... Use of zero- GHG (methane) and
emissions pumps. VOC emission rate
of zero.
Pumps: Natural gas-driven (at Use of an existing Route pump
sites where onsite power is not VRU or control emissions to a
available and there are fewer device. process if VRU is
than 3 diaphragm pumps). onsite, or to
control device if
onsite.
Well Completions: Subcategory 1 Combination of REC Applies to each
(non-wildcat and non- \8\ and the use well completion
delineation wells). of a completion operation with
combustion device. hydraulic
fracturing.
REC in combination
with a completion
combustion
device; venting
in lieu of
combustion where
combustion would
present
demonstrable
safety hazards.
Initial flowback
stage: Route to a
storage vessel or
completion vessel
(frac tank, lined
pit, or other
vessel) and
separator.
Separation
flowback stage:
Route all salable
gas from the
separator to a
flow line or
collection
system, reinject
the gas into the
well or another
well, use the gas
as an onsite fuel
source or use for
another useful
purpose that a
purchased fuel or
raw material
would serve. If
technically
infeasible to
route recovered
gas as specified,
recovered gas
must be
combusted. All
liquids must be
routed to a
storage vessel or
well completion
vessel,
collection
system, or be
reinjected into
the well or
another well.
The operator is
required to have
(and use) a
separator onsite
during the entire
flowback period.

[[Page 16832]]

Well Completions: Subcategory 2 Use of a Applies to each
(exploratory, wildcat, and completion well completion
delineation wells and non- combustion device. operation with
wildcat and non-delineation low- hydraulic
pressure wells). fracturing.
The operator is
not required to
have a separator
onsite. Either:
(1) Route all
flowback to a
completion
combustion device
with a continuous
pilot flame; or
(2) Route all
flowback into one
or more well
completion
vessels and
commence
operation of a
separator unless
it is technically
infeasible for a
separator to
function. Any gas
present in the
flowback before
the separator can
function is not
subject to
control under
this section.
Capture and
direct recovered
gas to a
completion
combustion device
with a continuous
pilot flame.
For both options
(1) and (2),
combustion is not
required in
conditions that
may result in a
fire hazard or
explosion, or
where high heat
emissions from a
completion
combustion device
may negatively
impact tundra,
permafrost, or
waterways.
Equipment Leaks at Natural Gas LDAR \9\ with LDAR with OGI
Processing Plants. bimonthly OGI. following
procedures in
appendix K.
New Wells with Associated Gas Route associated Route associated
that commenced construction gas to a sales gas to a sales
after May 7, 2026. line. line; or, the gas
can be used for
another useful
purpose that a
purchased fuel,
chemical
feedstock, or raw
material would
serve, or
recovered from
the separator and
reinjected into
the well or
injected into
another well.
New wells with Associated Gas Route associated Route associated
that commenced construction gas to a sales gas to a sales
between May 7, 2024, and May 7, line. line; or, the gas
2026. can be used for
another useful
purpose that a
purchased fuel,
chemical
feedstock, or raw
material would
serve, or
recovered from
the separator and
reinjected into
the well or
injected into
another well. If
demonstrated, and
documented
annually, that
routing to a
sales line and
the alternatives
are not
technically
feasible, the
associated gas
can be routed to
a flare or other
control device
that achieves at
least 95 percent
reduction in GHG
(methane) and VOC
emissions. A
second
infeasibility
determination may
not extend beyond
24 months from
effective date.
New Wells with Associated Gas Route associated Route associated
that Commenced Construction gas to a sales gas to a sales
after December 6, 2022, and line. line; or, the gas
before May 7, 2024. can be used for
another useful
purpose that a
purchased fuel,
chemical
feedstock, or raw
material would
serve, or
recovered from
the separator and
reinjected into
the well or
injected into
another well. If
demonstrated, and
documented
annually, that
routing to a
sales line and
the alternatives
are not
technically
feasible, the
associated gas
can be routed to
a flare or other
control device
that achieves at
least 95 percent
reduction in GHG
(methane) and VOC
emissions.

[[Page 16833]]

Wells with Associated Gas Route associated Route associated
Reconstructed or Modified after gas to a sales gas to a sales
December 6, 2022. line. line; or, the gas
can be used for
another useful
purpose that a
purchased fuel,
chemical
feedstock, or raw
material would
serve, or
recovered from
the separator and
reinjected into
the well or
injected into
another well. If
demonstrated, and
documented
annually, that
routing to a
sales line and
the alternatives
are not
technically
feasible, the
associated gas
can be routed to
a flare or other
control device
that achieves at
least 95 percent
reduction in GHG
(methane) and VOC
emissions.
Sweetening Units................ Achieve SO2 Achieve required
emission minimum SO2
reduction emission
efficiency. reduction
efficiency.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ tpy (tons per year).
\2\ OGI (optical gas imaging).
\3\ ppm (parts per million).
\4\ PTE (potential to emit).
\5\ scfh (standard cubic feet per hour).
\6\ BMP (best management practices).
\7\ scfm (standard cubic feet per minute).
\8\ REC (reduced emissions completion).
\9\ LDAR (leak detection and repair).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\22\ For fugitive emissions at well sites,centralized production
facilities, and compressor stations, the EPA is finalizing an
advanced measurement technology compliance option to use alternative
periodic screening and alternative continuous monitoring instead of
OGI and AVO monitoring.

Table 4--Summary of Final BSER and Final Presumptive Standards for GHGs
From Designated Facilities (EG OOOOc) \23\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final presumptive
Designated facility Final BSER standards for GHGs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fugitive Emissions: Single Quarterly AVO Quarterly AVO
Wellhead Only Well Sites and monitoring surveys. First
Small Well Sites. surveys. attempt at repair
within 15 days
after detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 15
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Multi- Quarterly AVO Quarterly AVO
wellhead Only Well Sites (2 or monitoring surveys. First
more wellheads). surveys. attempt at repair
within 15 days
after detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 15
days after first
attempt.
AND Semiannual OGI
monitoring
(Optional semi-
Monitoring and annual EPA Method
repair based on 21 monitoring
semiannual with 500 ppm
monitoring using defined as a
OGI\2\. leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Well Sites Bimonthly AVO Bimonthly AVO
and Centralized Production monitoring surveys. First
Facilities. surveys (i.e., attempt at repair
every other within 15 days
month). after detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 15
days after first
attempt.
AND AND
Monitoring and Well sites with
repair based on specified major
quarterly production and
monitoring using processing
OGI. equipment:
Quarterly OGI
monitoring.
(Optional
quarterly EPA
Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).

[[Page 16834]]

First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
finding fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive
monitoring
continues for all
well sites until
the site has been
closed, including
plugging the
wells at the site
and submitting a
well closure
report.
Fugitive Emissions: Compressor Monthly AVO Monthly AVO
Stations. monitoring surveys. First
surveys. attempt at repair
within 15 days
after detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 15
days after first
attempt.
AND AND
Monitoring and Quarterly OGI
repair based on monitoring.
quarterly (Optional
monitoring using quarterly EPA
OGI. Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
detecting
fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Fugitive Emissions: Well Sites Monitoring and Annual OGI
and Compressor Stations on repair based on monitoring.
Alaska North Slope. annual monitoring (Optional annual
using OGI. EPA Method 21
monitoring with
500 ppm defined
as a leak).
First attempt at
repair within 30
days after
finding fugitive
emissions. Final
repair within 30
days after first
attempt.
Storage Vessels: Tank Battery Capture and route 95 percent
with PTE of 20 tpy or More of to a control reduction of
Methane. device. methane.
Process Controllers: Natural gas- Use of zero- GHG (methane)
driven. emissions emission rate of
controllers. zero.
Process Controllers: Alaska (at Use of low-bleed Natural gas bleed
sites where onsite power is not process rate no greater
available--continuous bleed controllers. than 6 scfh.
natural gas-driven).
Process Controllers: Alaska (at Monitor and repair OGI monitoring and
sites where onsite power is not through fugitive repair of
available--intermittent natural emissions program. emissions from
gas-driven). controller
malfunctions.
Gas Well Liquids Unloading...... Best management Perform best
practices to management
minimize or practices to
eliminate methane minimize or
and VOC emissions eliminate methane
to the maximum and VOC emissions
extent possible. to the maximum
extent possible
from liquids
unloading events
that vent
emissions to the
atmosphere.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair to repair to
well sites). maintain maintain
volumetric flow volumetric flow
rate at or below rate at or below
3 scfm\7\. 3 scfm per seal.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair to repair to
well sites): Self-contained maintain maintain
centrifugal compressors and wet volumetric flow volumetric flow
seal compressors equipped with rate at or below rate at or below
a mechanical seal. 3 scfm. 3 scfm per seal.
Wet Seal Centrifugal Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair to repair to
well sites): Alaska North Slope maintain maintain
centrifugal compressors volumetric flow volumetric flow
equipped with a seal oil rate at or below rate at or below
recovery system. 9 scfm. 9 scfm per seal.
Dry Seal Centrifugal Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair to repair to
well sites). maintain maintain
volumetric flow volumetric flow
rate at or below rate at or below
10 scfm\7\. 10 scfm per seal.
Reciprocating Compressors Monitoring and Monitoring and
(except for those located at repair or replace repair to
well sites). the reciprocating maintain
compressor rod volumetric flow
packing in order rate at or below
to maintain 2 scfm per
volumetric flow cylinder.
rate at or below
2 scfm.
Pumps: Natural gas-driven....... Use of zero- GHG (methane)
emissions pumps. emission rate of
zero.
Pumps: Natural gas-driven (at Use of an existing Route pump
sites where onsite power is not VRU or control emissions to a
available and there are fewer device. process if VRU is
than 3 diaphragm pumps). onsite, or to
control device if
onsite.
Equipment Leaks at Natural Gas LDAR with LDAR with OGI
Processing Plants. bimonthly OGI. following
procedures in
appendix K.

[[Page 16835]]

Wells with Associated Gas Route associated Route associated
greater than 40 tpy methane. gas to a sales gas to a sales
line. line.
Alternatively,
the gas can be
used as an onsite
fuel source or
used for another
useful purpose
that a purchased
fuel or raw
material would
serve, or be
injected into the
well or another
well. If
demonstrated, and
annually
documented, that
a sales line and
alternatives are
not technically
feasible, the gas
can be routed to
a flare or other
control device
that achieves at
least 95 percent
reduction in
methane
emissions.
Wells with Associated Gas 40 tpy Route associated Route associated
methane or less. gas to a flare or gas to a sales
other control line.
device that Alternatively,
achieves at least the gas can be
95 percent used as an onsite
reduction in fuel source or
methane emissions. used for another
useful purpose
that a purchased
fuel or raw
material would
serve, or be
injected into the
well or another
well.
Alternatively,
the gas can be
routed to a flare
or other control
device that
achieves at least
95 percent
reduction in
methane
emissions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. Costs and Benefits
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\23\ For fugitive emissions at well sites, centralized
production facilities, and compressor stations, the EPA is
finalizing an advanced measurement technology compliance option to
use alternative periodic screening and alternative continuous
monitoring instead of OGI and AVO monitoring.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

In accordance with the requirements of E.O. 12866, the EPA
projected the emissions reductions, costs, and benefits that may result
from this final rulemaking. These results are presented in detail in
the RIA accompanying this final rulemaking developed in response to
E.O. 12866. The RIA focuses on the elements of the final rules that are
likely to result in quantifiable cost or emissions changes compared to
a baseline without the rule. We estimated the cost, emissions, and
benefit impacts for the 2024 to 2038 period. We present the present
value (PV) and equivalent annual value (EAV) of costs, benefits, and
net benefits of this rulemaking in 2019 dollars.
The initial analysis year in the RIA is 2024 as we assume the NSPS
rules will take effect early in 2024. The EG will take longer to go
into effect as states will need to develop implementation plans in
response to the EG and have them approved by the EPA. We assume in the
RIA that this process will take 4 years, and so EG impacts will begin
in 2028. The final analysis year is 2038, which allows us to provide up
to 15 years of projected impacts after the NSPS is assumed to take
effect and 11 years of projected impacts after the EG is assumed to
take effect.
The cost analysis presented in the RIA reflects a nationwide
engineering analysis of compliance cost and emissions reductions, of
which there are two main components. The first component is a set of
representative or model plants for each regulated facility, segment,
and control option. The characteristics of the model plant include
typical equipment, operating characteristics, and representative
factors including baseline emissions and the costs, emissions
reductions, and product recovery resulting from each control option.
The second component is a set of projections of activity data for
affected facilities, distinguished by vintage, year, and other
necessary attributes (e.g., oil versus natural gas wells). Impacts are
calculated by setting parameters on how and when affected facilities
are assumed to respond to a particular regulatory regime, multiplying
activity data by model plant cost and emissions estimates, differencing
from the baseline scenario, and then summing to the desired level of
aggregation. In addition to emissions reductions, some control options
result in natural gas recovery, which can then be combusted in
production or sold. Where applicable, we present projected compliance
costs with and without the projected revenues from product recovery.
The EPA expects climate and health benefits due to the emissions
reductions projected under this final rulemaking. The EPA estimated the
monetized climate benefits of methane emission reductions expected from
these final rules using estimates of the social cost of methane (SC-
CH<INF>4</INF>) that reflect recent advances in the scientific
literature on climate change and its economic impacts and incorporate
recommendations made by the National Academies of Science, Engineering,
and Medicine (National Academies 2017). The EPA presented these
estimates in a sensitivity analysis in the December 2022 RIA, solicited
public comment on the methodology and use of these estimates, and has
conducted an external peer review of these estimates, as discussed in
section XVI.E of this preamble.
In addition to climate benefits from methane emissions reductions,
the EPA expects that VOC emission reductions under the final rulemaking
will improve air quality and improve health and welfare due to reduced
exposure to ozone, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5
micrometers or less (PM<INF>2.5</INF>), and hazardous air pollutants
(HAP). In a national-level analysis of public health impacts, the EPA
used the environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program--Community
Edition (BenMAP-CE) software program to quantify counts of premature
deaths and illnesses attributable to photochemical modeled changes in
summer season average ozone concentrations resulting from projected VOC
emissions reductions under the rulemaking. The methods for quantifying
the number and value of air pollution-attributable premature deaths and
illnesses are described in the RIA for this action and the TSD titled
Estimating PM<INF>2.5</INF>- and Ozone-Attributable Health
Benefits.\24\ These reductions in health-harming pollution would result
in significant public health benefits including avoided

[[Page 16836]]

premature deaths, reductions in new asthma cases and incidences of
asthma symptoms, reductions in hospital admissions and emergency
department visits, and reductions in lost school days.
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\24\ <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-01/Estimating%20PM2.5-%20and%20Ozone-Attributable%20Health%20Benefits%20TSD_0.pdf">https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-01/Estimating%20PM2.5-%20and%20Ozone-Attributable%20Health%20Benefits%20TSD_0.pdf</a>.
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The EPA notes that the benefits analysis is distinct from the
statutory BSER determinations finalized herein, which are based on the
statutory factors the EPA is required to consider under section 111(a)
of the CAA (including cost, energy requirements and nonair quality
health, and environmental impacts). The assessment of benefits
described above and in the RIA is presented solely for the purposes of
complying with E.O. 12866 and providing the public with a complete
depiction of the impacts of the rulemaking.
The projected national-level emissions reductions over the 2024 to
2038 period anticipated under the finalized requirements are presented
in table 5. Table 6 presents the PV and EAV of the projected benefits,
costs, and net benefits over the 2024 to 2038 period under the final
rule using discount rates of 2, 3, and 7 percent.

Table 5--Projected Emissions Reductions Under the Final Rules, 2024-2038
Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emissions reductions
Pollutant (2024-2038 total)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Methane (million short tons) \a\.................. 58
VOC (million short tons).......................... 16
Hazardous Air Pollutant (million short tons)...... 0.59
Methane (million metric tons CO2 Eq.) \b\......... 1,500
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ To convert from short tons to metric tons, multiply the short tons
by 0.907. Alternatively, to convert metric tons to short tons,
multiply metric tons by 1.102.
\b\ Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 Eq). calculated using a global
warming potential of 28.

Table 6--Benefits, Costs, Net Benefits, and Emissions Reductions Under the Final Rules, 2024-2038
[Dollar Estimates in Millions of 2019 Dollars] \a\
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Percent near-term Ramsey discount rate
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PV EAV PV EAV PV EAV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Climate Benefits \b\.................................... $110,000 $8,500 $110,000 $8,500 $110,000 $8,500
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Percent discount rate 3 Percent discount rate 7 Percent discount rate
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PV EAV PV EAV PV EAV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozone Health Benefits \c\............................... $7,000 $540 $6,100 $510 $3,500 $380
Net Compliance Costs.................................... 19,000 1,500 18,000 1,500 14,000 1,600
Compliance Costs........................................ 31,000 2,400 29,000 2,400 22,000 2,400
Value of Product Recovery............................... 13,000 980 11,000 950 7,400 820
Net Benefits \d\........................................ 97,000 7,600 97,000 7,500 98,000 7,300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-Monetized Benefits.................................. Climate and ozone-related health benefits from reducing 58 million short tons of methane from
2024 to 2038.
Benefits to provision of ecosystem services associated with reduced ozone concentrations from
reducing 16 million short tons of VOC from 2024 to 2038.
PM2.5-related health benefits from reducing 16 million short tons of VOC from 2024 to 2038.
HAP benefits from reducing 590 thousand short tons of HAP from 2024 to 2038.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ Values rounded to two significant figures. Totals may not appear to add correctly due to rounding.
\b\ Climate benefits are based on reductions in methane emissions and are calculated using three different estimates of the SC-CH4 (under 1.5 percent,
2.0 percent, and 2.5 percent near-term Ramsey discount rates). For the presentational purposes of this table, we show the climate benefits associated
with the SC-CH4 at the 2 percent near-term Ramsey discount rate. Please see tables 3.4 and 3.5 in the RIA for the full range of monetized climate
benefit estimates. All net benefits are calculated using climate benefits discounted at the 2 percent near-term rate.
\c\ Monetized benefits include those related to public health associated with reductions in ozone concentrations. The health benefits are associated
with several point estimates.
\d\ Several categories of climate, human health, and welfare benefits from methane, VOC, and HAP emissions reductions remain unmonetized and are thus
not directly reflected in the quantified benefit estimates in the table.

III. Air Emissions From the Crude Oil and Natural Gas Sector and Public
Health and Welfare

A. Impacts of GHGs, VOCs, and SO<INF>2</INF> Emissions on Public Health
and Welfare

As noted previously, the oil and natural gas industry emits a wide
range of pollutants, including GHGs (such as methane and
CO<INF>2</INF>), VOCs, SO<INF>2</INF>, NO<INF>X</INF>, H<INF>2</INF>S,
CS<INF>2</INF>, and COS. See 49 FR 2636, 2637 (January 20, 1984). As
noted below, to this point the EPA has focused its regulatory efforts
under CAA section 111 on GHGs, VOC, and SO<INF>2</INF>.\25\
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\25\ We note that the EPA's focus on GHGs (in particular
methane), VOC, and SO<INF>2</INF> in these analyses does not in any
way limit the EPA's authority to promulgate standards that would
apply to other pollutants emitted from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas
source category, if the EPA determines in the future that such
action is appropriate.
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1. Climate Change Impacts From GHGs Emissions
Elevated concentrations of GHGs are and have been warming the
planet, leading to changes in the Earth's climate including changes in
the frequency and intensity of heat waves, precipitation, and extreme
weather events; rising seas; and retreating snow and ice. The changes
taking place in the atmosphere as a result of the well-documented

[[Page 16837]]

buildup of GHGs due to human activities are changing the climate at a
pace and in a way that threatens human health, society, and the natural
environment. Human-produced GHGs, largely derived from our reliance on
fossil fuels, are causing serious and life-threatening environmental
and health impacts. While the EPA is not making any new scientific or
factual findings with regard to the well-documented impact of GHG
emissions on public health and welfare in support of this rulemaking,
the EPA is providing some scientific background on climate change to
offer additional context for this rulemaking and to increase the
public's understanding of the environmental impacts of GHGs.
Extensive additional information on climate change is available in
the scientific assessments and the EPA documents that are briefly
described in this section of this preamble, as well as in the technical
and scientific information supporting them. One of those documents is
the EPA's 2009 Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for GHGs
Under Section 202(a) of the CAA (74 FR 66496, December 15, 2009).\26\
In the 2009 Endangerment Findings, the Administrator found under
section 202(a) of the CAA that elevated atmospheric concentrations of
six key well-mixed GHGs--CO<INF>2,</INF> methane, N<INF>2</INF>O, HFCs,
perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF<INF>6</INF>)--
``may reasonably be anticipated to endanger the public health and
welfare of current and future generations'' (74 FR 66523, December 15,
2009), and the science and observed changes since that time have
confirmed and strengthened the understanding and concerns regarding the
climate risks considered in the Findings. The 2009 Endangerment
Findings, together with the extensive scientific and technical evidence
in the supporting record, documented that climate change caused by
human emissions of GHGs threatens the public health of the U.S.
population. It explained that by raising average temperatures, climate
change increases the likelihood of heat waves, which are associated
with increased deaths and illnesses (74 FR 66497, December 15, 2009).
While climate change also increases the likelihood of reductions in
cold-related mortality, evidence indicates that the increases in heat
mortality will be larger than the decreases in cold mortality in the
U.S. (74 FR 66525, December 15, 2009). The 2009 Endangerment Findings
further explained that compared to a future without climate change,
climate change is expected to increase tropospheric ozone pollution
over broad areas of the U.S., including in the largest metropolitan
areas with the worst tropospheric ozone problems, and thereby increase
the risk of adverse effects on public health (74 FR 66525, December 15,
2009). Climate change is also expected to cause more intense
hurricanes, and more frequent and intense storms of other types, and
heavy precipitation, with impacts on other areas of public health such
as the potential for increased deaths, injuries, infectious and
waterborne diseases, and stress-related disorders (74 FR 66525,
December 15, 2009). Children, the elderly, and the poor are among the
most vulnerable to these climate-related health effects (74 FR 66498,
December 15, 2009).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\26\ In describing these 2009 Findings in this proposal, the EPA
is neither reopening nor revisiting them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2009 Endangerment Findings also documented, together with the
extensive scientific and technical evidence in the supporting record,
that climate change touches nearly every aspect of public welfare \27\
in the U.S. with resulting economic costs, including: changes in water
supply and quality due to increased frequency of drought and extreme
rainfall events; increased risk of storm surge and flooding in coastal
areas and land loss due to inundation; increases in peak electricity
demand and risks to electricity infrastructure; and the potential for
significant agricultural disruptions and crop failures (though offset
to some extent by carbon fertilization). These impacts are also global
and may exacerbate problems outside the U.S. that raise humanitarian,
trade, and national security issues for the U.S. (74 FR 66530, December
15, 2009).
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\27\ The CAA states in section 302(h) that ``[a]ll language
referring to effects on welfare includes, but is not limited to,
effects on soils, water, crops, vegetation, manmade materials,
animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, and climate, damage to and
deterioration of property, and hazards to transportation, as well as
effects on economic values and on personal comfort and well-being,
whether caused by transformation, conversion, or combination with
other air pollutants.'' 42 U.S.C. 7602(h).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 2016, the Administrator similarly issued Endangerment and Cause
or Contribute Findings for GHG emissions from aircraft under section
231(a)(2)(A) of the CAA (81 FR 54422, August 15, 2016).\28\ In the 2016
Endangerment Findings, the Administrator found that the body of
scientific evidence amassed in the record for the 2009 Endangerment
Findings compellingly supported a similar endangerment finding under
CAA section 231(a)(2)(A) and also found that the science assessments
released between the 2009 and the 2016 Findings ``strengthen and
further support the judgment that GHGs in the atmosphere may reasonably
be anticipated to endanger the public health and welfare of current and
future generations.'' (81 FR 54424, August 15, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\28\ In describing these 2016 Findings in this proposal, the EPA
is neither reopening nor revisiting them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the 2016 Endangerment Findings, the climate has continued to
change, with new records being set for several climate indicators such
as global average surface temperatures, GHG concentrations, and sea
level rise. Moreover, heavy precipitation events have increased in the
eastern U.S. while agricultural and ecological drought has increased in
the western U.S. along with more intense and larger wildfires.\29\
These and other trends are examples of the risks discussed the 2009 and
2016 Endangerment Findings that have already been experienced.
Additionally, major scientific assessments continue to demonstrate
advances in our understanding of the climate system and the impacts
that GHGs have on public health and welfare both for current and future
generations. These updated observations and projections document the
rapid rate of current and future climate change both globally and in
the U.S. These assessments include:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\29\ See later in this section of the document for specific
examples. An additional resource for indicators can be found at
<a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators">https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators</a>.

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[[Page 16838]]

<bullet> U.S. Global Change Research Program's (USGCRP) 2016
Climate and Health Assessment \30\ and 2017-2018 Fourth National
Climate Assessment (NCA4) 31 32
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\30\ USGCRP, 2016: The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health
in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Crimmins, A., J.
Balbus, J.L. Gamble, C.B. Beard, J.E. Bell, D. Dodgen, R.J. Eisen,
N. Fann, M.D. Hawkins, S.C. Herring, L. Jantarasami, D.M. Mills, S.
Saha, M.C. Sarofim, J. Trtanj, and L. Ziska, Eds. U.S. Global Change
Research Program, Washington, DC, 312 pp.
\31\ USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth
National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey,
K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)].
U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp,
doi: 10.7930/J0J964J6.
\32\ USGCRP, 2018: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United
States: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II [Reidmiller,
D.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, K.L.M. Lewis, T.K.
Maycock, and B.C. Stewart (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research
Program, Washington, DC, USA, 1515 pp. doi:10.7930/NCA4.2018.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<bullet> IPCC's 2018 Global Warming of 1.5 [deg]C,\33\ 2019 Climate
Change and Land,\34\ and the 2019 Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing
Climate \35\ assessments, as well as the 2023 IPCC Sixth Assessment
Report (AR6).\36\
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\33\ IPCC, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5 [deg]C. An IPCC Special
Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 [deg]C above pre-
industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission
pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the
threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to
eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. P[ouml]rtner,
D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C.
P[eacute]an, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X.
Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T.
Waterfield (eds.)].
\34\ IPCC, 2019: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report
on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable
land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in
terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V.
Masson-Delmotte, H.-O. P[ouml]rtner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R.
Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S.
Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E.
Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)].
\35\ IPCC, 2019: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere
in a Changing Climate [H.-O. P[ouml]rtner, DC Roberts, V. Masson-
Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A.
Alegr[iacute]a, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer
(eds.)].
\36\ IPCC, 2023: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change
2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III
to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)].
IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34, doi:10.59327/IPCC/AR6-
9789291691647.001.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<bullet> The NAS 2016 Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the
Context of Climate Change,\37\ 2017 Valuing Climate Damages: Updating
Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide,\38\ and 2019 Climate
Change and Ecosystems \39\ assessments.
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\37\ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
2016. Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of
Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
<a href="https://dio.org/10.17226/21852">https://dio.org/10.17226/21852</a>.
\38\ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
2017. Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social
Cost of Carbon Dioxide. Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press. <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/24651">https://doi.org/10.17226/24651</a>.
\39\ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
2019. Climate Change and Ecosystems. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/25504">https://doi.org/10.17226/25504</a>.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<bullet> National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)
annual State of the Climate reports published by the Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society,\40\ most recently in 2022.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\40\ Blunden, J. and T. Boyer, Eds., 2022: ``State of the
Climate in 2021''. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 103 (8), Si-S465,
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/2022BAMSStateoftheClimate.1">https://doi.org/10.1175/2022BAMSStateoftheClimate.1</a>.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<bullet> EPA Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United
States: A Focus on Six Impacts (2021).\41\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\41\ EPA. 2021. Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the
United States: A Focus on Six Impacts. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, EPA 430-R-21-003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The most recent information demonstrates that the climate is
continuing to change in response to the human-induced buildup of GHGs
in the atmosphere. These recent assessments show that atmospheric
concentrations of GHGs have risen to a level that has no precedent in
human history and that they continue to climb, primarily because of
both historical and current anthropogenic emissions, and that these
elevated concentrations endanger our health by affecting our food and
water sources, the air we breathe, the weather we experience, and our
interactions with the natural and built environments. For example,
atmospheric concentrations of one of these GHGs, CO<INF>2</INF>,
measured at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and at other sites around the world
reached 419 parts per million (ppm) in 2022 (nearly 50 percent higher
than preindustrial levels) \42\ and have continued to rise at a rapid
rate. Global average temperature has increased by about 1.1 [deg]C (2.0
[deg]F) in the 2011-2020 decade relative to 1850-1900.\43\ The years
2015-2021 were the warmest 7 years in the 1880-2021 record,
contributing to the warmest decade on record with a decadal temperature
of 0.82 [deg]C (1.48 [deg]F) above the 20th century.44 45
The IPCC determined (with medium confidence) that this past decade was
warmer than any multi-century period in at least the past 100,000
years.\46\ Global average sea level has risen by about 8 inches (about
21 centimeters (cm)) from 1901 to 2018, with the rate from 2006 to 2018
(0.15 inches/year or 3.7 millimeters (mm)/year) almost twice the rate
over the 1971 to 2006 period, and three times the rate of the 1901 to
2018 period.\47\ The rate of sea level rise over the 20th century was
higher than in any other century in at least the last 2,800 years.\48\
Higher CO<INF>2</INF> concentrations have led to acidification of the
surface ocean in recent decades to an extent unusual in the past 2
million years, with negative impacts on marine organisms that use
calcium carbonate to build shells or skeletons.\49\ Arctic sea ice
extent continues to decline in all months of the year; the most rapid
reductions occur in September (very likely almost a 13 percent decrease
per decade between 1979 and 2018) and are unprecedented in at least
1,000 years.\50\ Human-induced climate change has led to heatwaves and
heavy precipitation becoming more frequent and more intense, along with
increases in agricultural and ecological droughts \51\ in many
regions.\52\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\42\ <a href="https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_mlo.txt">https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_mlo.txt</a>.
\43\ IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change
2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to
the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L.
Connors, C. P[eacute]an, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb,
M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K.
Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelek[ccedil]i, R. Yu, and B. Zhou
(eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and
New York, NY, USA, pp. 3-32, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.001.
\44\ NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, State
of the Climate 2021 retrieved on August 3, 2023, from <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-climate">https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-climate</a>.
\45\ Blunden, et al. 2022.
\46\ IPCC, 2021.
\47\ IPCC, 2021.
\48\ USGCRP, 2018: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United
States: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II [Reidmiller,
D.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, K.L.M. Lewis, T.K.
Maycock, and B.C. Stewart (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research
Program, Washington, DC, USA, 1515 pp. doi:10.7930/NCA4.2018.
\49\ IPCC, 2021.
\27\ IPCC, 2021.
\51\ These are drought measures based on soil moisture.
\52\ IPCC, 2021.
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The assessment literature demonstrates that modest additional
amounts of warming may lead to a climate different from anything humans
have ever experienced. The 2022 CO<INF>2</INF> concentration of 419 ppm
is already higher than at any time in the last 2 million years.\53\ If
concentrations exceed 450 ppm, they would likely be higher than any
time in the past 23 million years: \54\ at the current rate of increase
of more than 2 ppm a year, this would

[[Page 16839]]

occur in about 15 years. While GHGs are not the only factor that
controls climate, it is illustrative that 3 million years ago (the last
time CO<INF>2</INF> concentrations were above 400 ppm) Greenland was
not yet completely covered by ice and still supported forests, while 23
million years ago (the last time concentrations were above 450 ppm) the
West Antarctic ice sheet was not yet developed, indicating the
possibility that high GHG concentrations could lead to a world that
looks very different from today and from the conditions in which human
civilization has developed. If the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
were to melt substantially, sea levels would rise dramatically--the
IPCC estimated that over the next 2,000 years, sea level will rise by 7
to 10 feet even if warming is limited to 1.5 [deg]C (2.7 [deg]F), from
7 to 20 feet if limited to 2 [deg]C (3.6 [deg]F), and by 60 to 70 feet
if warming is allowed to reach 5 [deg]C (9 [deg]F) above preindustrial
levels.\55\ For context, almost all of the city of Miami is less than
25 feet above sea level, and the NCA4 stated that 13 million Americans
would be at risk of migration due to 6 feet of sea level rise.
Moreover, the CO<INF>2</INF> being absorbed by the ocean has resulted
in changes in ocean chemistry due to acidification of a magnitude not
seen in 65 million years,\56\ putting many marine species--particularly
calcifying species--at risk.
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\53\ Annual Mauna Loa CO<INF>2</INF> concentration data from
<a href="https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_mlo.txt">https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_annmean_mlo.txt</a>,
accessed September 9, 2023.
\54\ IPCC, 2013.
\55\ IPCC, 2021.
\56\ IPCC, 2018.
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The NCA4 found that it is very likely (greater than 90 percent
likelihood) that by mid-century, the Arctic Ocean will be almost
entirely free of sea ice by late summer for the first time in about 2
million years.\57\ Coral reefs will be at risk for almost complete (99
percent) losses with 1 [deg]C (1.8 [deg]F) of additional warming from
today (2 [deg]C or 3.6 [deg]F since preindustrial). At this
temperature, between 8 and 18 percent of animal, plant, and insect
species could lose over half of the geographic area with suitable
climate for their survival, and 7 to 10 percent of rangeland livestock
would be projected to be lost.\58\ The IPCC similarly found that
climate change has caused substantial damages and increasingly
irreversible losses in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal and open
ocean marine ecosystems.
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\57\ USGCRP, 2018.
\58\ IPCC, 2018.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scientific assessments also demonstrate that even modest additional
amounts of warming may lead to a climate different from anything humans
have ever experienced. Every additional increment of temperature comes
with consequences. For example, the half degree of warming from 1.5 to
2 [deg]C (0.9 [deg]F of warming from 2.7 [deg]F to 3.6 [deg]F) above
preindustrial temperatures is projected on a global scale to expose 420
million more people to frequent extreme heatwaves, and 62 million more
people to frequent exceptional heatwaves (where heatwaves are defined
based on a heat wave magnitude index which takes into account duration
and intensity--using this index, the 2003 French heat wave that led to
almost 15,000 deaths would be classified as an ``extreme heatwave'' and
the 2010 Russian heatwave which led to thousands of deaths and
extensive wildfires would be classified as ``exceptional''). It would
increase the frequency of sea-ice-free Arctic summers from once in 100
years to once in a decade. It could lead to 4 inches of additional sea
level rise by the end of the century, exposing an additional 10 million
people to risks of inundation as well as increasing the probability of
triggering instabilities in either the Greenland or Antarctic ice
sheets. Between half a million and a million additional square miles of
permafrost would thaw over several centuries. Risks to food security
would increase from medium-to-high for several lower-income regions in
the Sahel, southern Africa, the Mediterranean, central Europe, and the
Amazon. In addition to food security issues, this temperature increase
would have implications for human health in terms of increasing ozone
concentrations, heatwaves, and vector-borne diseases (for example,
expanding the range of the mosquitoes which carry dengue fever,
chikungunya, yellow fever, and the Zika virus, or the ticks which carry
Lyme, babesiosis, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever).\59\ Moreover, every
additional increment in warming leads to larger changes in extremes,
including the potential for events unprecedented in the observational
record. Every additional degree will intensify extreme precipitation
events by about 7 percent. The peak winds of the most intense tropical
cyclones (hurricanes) are projected to increase with warming. In
addition to a higher intensity, the IPCC found that precipitation and
frequency of rapid intensification of these storms has already
increased, the movement speed has decreased, and elevated sea levels
have increased coastal flooding, all of which make these tropical
cyclones more damaging.\60\
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\59\ IPCC, 2018.
\60\ IPCC, 2021.
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The NCA4 also evaluated a number of impacts specific to the U.S.
Severe drought and outbreaks of insects like the mountain pine beetle
have killed hundreds of millions of trees in the western U.S. Wildfires
have burned more than 3.7 million acres in 14 of the 17 years between
2000 and 2016, and Federal wildfire suppression costs were about a
billion dollars annually.\61\ The National Interagency Fire Center has
documented U.S. wildfires since 1983, and the 10 years with the largest
acreage burned have all occurred since 2004.\62\ Wildfire smoke
degrades air quality, increasing health risks, and more frequent and
severe wildfires due to climate change would further diminish air
quality, increase incidences of respiratory illness, impair visibility,
and disrupt outdoor activities, sometimes thousands of miles from the
location of the fire. Meanwhile, sea level rise has amplified coastal
flooding and erosion impacts, requiring the installation of costly pump
stations, flooding streets, and increasing storm surge damages. Tens of
billions of dollars of U.S. real estate could be below sea level by
2050 under some scenarios. Increased frequency and duration of drought
will reduce agricultural productivity in some regions, accelerate
depletion of water supplies for irrigation, and expand the distribution
and incidence of pests and diseases for crops and livestock. The NCA4
also recognized that climate change can increase risks to national
security, both through direct impacts on military infrastructure and by
affecting factors such as food and water availability that can
exacerbate conflict outside U.S. borders. Droughts, floods, storm
surges, wildfires, and other extreme events stress nations and people
through loss of life, displacement of populations, and impacts on
livelihoods.\63\
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\61\ USGCRP, 2018.
\62\ NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center). 2021. Total
wildland fires and acres (1983-2020). Accessed August 2021.
<a href="http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html">www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html</a>.
\63\ USGCRP, 2018.

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[[Page 16840]]

Ongoing EPA modeling efforts can shed further light on the
distribution of climate change damages expected to occur within the
U.S. Based on methods from over 30 peer-reviewed climate change impact
studies, the EPA's Framework for Evaluating Damages and Impacts (FrEDI)
model has developed estimates of the relationship between future
temperature changes and physical and economic climate-driven damages
occurring in specific U.S. regions for 20 specific impact
categories.\64\ Recent applications of FrEDI have advanced the
collective understanding about how future climate change impacts in
these 20 categories are expected to be substantial and distributed
unevenly across U.S. regions.\65\ Using this framework, the EPA
estimates that under a global emission scenario with no additional
mitigation, relative to a world with no additional warming since the
baseline period (1986-2005), damages accruing to these impact
categories in the contiguous U.S. occur mainly through increased deaths
due to increasing temperatures as well as climate-driven changes in air
quality, transportation impacts due to coastal flooding resulting from
sea level rise, increased mortality from wildfire emission exposure and
response costs for fire suppression, and reduced labor hours worked in
outdoor settings and buildings without air conditioning. The relative
damages from long-term climate driven changes in these sectors are also
projected to vary from region to region. For example, of the impact
categories examined in FrEDI, the largest source of modeled damages
differ from region to region, with wildfire impacts in the Northwest,
air quality impacts on the East Coast and the Southwest, labor
productivity impacts in the Midwest, transportation impacts from high
tide flooding in the Southern Plains, and damages to rail
infrastructure in the Northern Plains. While the FrEDI framework
currently quantifies damages for 20 impact categories within the
contiguous U.S., it is important to note that it is still a preliminary
and partial assessment of climate impacts relevant to U.S. interests in
a number of ways. For example, the FrEDI framework reflects some
important health damages from U.S. wildfires (i.e., mortality and
morbidity impacts from wildfire smoke) and suppression costs, but do
not yet account for other market and non-market welfare effects of
wildfires (e.g., property damage, impacts to ecosystem services,
climate feedback effects from wildfire CO<INF>2</INF> emissions).
Similarly, FrEDI models several types of damages from SLR (e.g.,
traffic delays due to flooded coastal roadways) but do not reflect
others, such as the effect of groundwater intrusion, business
interruptions, debris removal costs, or critical infrastructure loss.
In addition, FrEDI does not reflect increased damages that occur due to
climate-mediated effects to ecosystem services, or national security,
interactions between different sectors impacted by climate change or
all the ways in which physical impacts of climate change occurring
abroad have spillover effects in different regions of the U.S. See the
FrEDI Technical Documentation \66\ for more details.
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\64\ EPA (2021). Technical Documentation on the Framework for
Evaluating Damages and Impacts (FrEDI). U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA 430-R-21-004, available at <a href="https://www.epa.gov/cira/fredi">https://www.epa.gov/cira/fredi</a>. Documentation has been subject to both a
public review comment period and an independent expert peer review,
following EPA peer-review guidelines.
\65\ (1) Sarofim, M.C., Martinich, J., Neumann, J.E., et al.
(2021). A temperature binning approach for multi-sector climate
impact analysis. Climatic Change 165. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03048-6">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03048-6</a>, (2) Supplementary Material for the Regulatory
Impact Analysis for the Supplemental Proposed Rulemaking,
``Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified
Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and
Natural Gas Sector Climate Review,'' Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-
0317, September 2022, (3) The Long-Term Strategy of the United
States: Pathways to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050.
Published by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Executive
Office of the President, Washington DC. November 2021, (4) Climate
Risk Exposure: An Assessment of the Federal Government's Financial
Risks to Climate Change, White Paper, Office of Management and
Budget, April 2022.
\66\ EPA (2021). Technical Documentation on the Framework for
Evaluating Damages and Impacts (FrEDI). U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA 430-R-21-004, available at <a href="https://www.epa.gov/cira/fredi">https://www.epa.gov/cira/fredi</a>.
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Some GHGs also have impacts beyond those mediated through climate
change. For example, elevated concentrations of CO<INF>2</INF>
stimulate plant growth (which can be positive in the case of beneficial
species, but negative in terms of weeds and invasive species, and can
also lead to a reduction in plant micronutrients \67\) and cause ocean
acidification. Nitrous oxide depletes the levels of protective
stratospheric ozone.\68\
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\67\ Ziska, L., A. Crimmins, A. Auclair, S. DeGrasse, J.F.
Garofalo, A.S. Khan, I. Loladze, A.A. P[eacute]rez de Le[oacute]n,
A. Showler, J. Thurston, and I. Walls, 2016: Ch. 7: Food Safety,
Nutrition, and Distribution. The Impacts of Climate Change on Human
Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. U.S. Global
Change Research Program, Washington, DC, 189-216. <a href="https://health2016.globalchange.gov/low/ClimateHealth2016_07_Food_small.pdf">https://health2016.globalchange.gov/low/ClimateHealth2016_07_Food_small.pdf</a>.
\68\ WMO (World Meteorological Organization), Scientific
Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018, Global Ozone Research and
Monitoring Project--Report No. 58, 588 pp., Geneva, Switzerland,
2018.
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As methane is the primary GHG addressed in this rulemaking, it is
relevant to highlight some trends and impacts specific to methane.
Concentrations of methane reached 1,912 parts per billion (ppb) in
2022, more than two and a half times the preindustrial concentration of
722 ppb.\69\ Moreover, the 2022 concentration was an increase of almost
17 ppb over 2021--the largest annual increase in methane concentrations
in the dataset (starting in 1984), continuing a trend of rapid rise
since a temporary pause ended in 2007.\70\ Methane has a high radiative
efficiency--almost 30 times that of CO<INF>2</INF> per ppb (and,
therefore, 80 times as much per unit mass).\71\ In addition, methane
contributes to climate change through chemical reactions in the
atmosphere that produce tropospheric ozone and stratospheric water
vapor. Human emissions of methane are responsible for about one-third
of the warming due to well-mixed GHGs, the second most important human
warming agent after CO<INF>2</INF>.\72\ Because of the substantial
emissions of methane, and its radiative efficiency, methane mitigation
is one of the best opportunities for reducing near-term warming.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\69\ Blunden, et al., 2022.
\70\ NOAA, <a href="https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/ch4/ch4_annmean_gl.txt">https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/ch4/ch4_annmean_gl.txt</a>, accessed August 3, 2023.
\71\ IPCC, 2021.
\72\ IPCC, 2021.
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The tropospheric ozone produced by the reaction of methane in the
atmosphere has harmful effects for human health and plant growth in
addition to its climate effects.\73\ In remote areas, methane is an
important precursor to tropospheric ozone formation.\74\ Approximately
50 percent of the global annual mean ozone increase since preindustrial
times is believed to be due to anthropogenic methane.\75\ Projections
of future

[[Page 16841]]

emissions also indicate that methane is likely to be a key contributor
to ozone concentrations in the future.\76\ Unlike NO<INF>X</INF> and
VOC, which affect ozone concentrations regionally and at hourly time
scales, methane emissions affect ozone concentrations globally and on
decadal time scales given methane's long atmospheric lifetime when
compared to these other ozone precursors.\77\ Reducing methane
emissions, therefore, will contribute to efforts to reduce global
background ozone concentrations that contribute to the incidence of
ozone-related health effects.\78\ The benefits of such reductions are
global and occur in both urban and rural areas.
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\73\ Nolte, C.G., P.D. Dolwick, N. Fann, L.W. Horowitz, V. Naik,
R.W. Pinder, T.L. Spero, D.A. Winner, and L.H. Ziska, 2018: Air
Quality. In Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States:
Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II [Reidmiller, D.R.,
C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, K.L.M. Lewis, T.K.
Maycock, and B.C. Stewart (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research
Program, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 512-538. doi:10.7930/NCA4. 2018.
CH13.
\74\ U.S. EPA. 2013. ``Integrated Science Assessment for Ozone
and Related Photochemical Oxidants (Final Report).'' EPA/600-R-10-
076F. National Center for Environmental Assessment--RTP Division.
Available at <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ncea/isa/">https://www.epa.gov/ncea/isa/</a>.
\75\ Myhre, G., D. Shindell, F.-M. Br[eacute]on, W. Collins, J.
Fuglestvedt, J. Huang, D. Koch, J.-F. Lamarque, D. Lee, B. Mendoza,
T. Nakajima, A. Robock, G. Stephens, T. Takemura and H. Zhang, 2013:
Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing. In: Climate Change
2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to
the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor,
S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley
(eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and
New York, NY, USA. Pg. 680.
\76\ Ibid.
\77\ Ibid.
\78\ USGCRP, 2018.
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These scientific assessments, the EPA analyses, and documented
observed changes in the climate of the planet and of the U.S. present
clear support regarding the current and future dangers of climate
change and the importance of GHG emissions mitigation.
2. VOCs
Many VOCs can be classified as HAP (e.g., benzene \79\) and can
lead to a variety of health concerns such as cancer and noncancer
illnesses (e.g., respiratory, neurological). Further, VOCs are one of
the key precursors in the formation of ozone. Tropospheric, or ground-
level, ozone is formed through reactions of VOCs and NO<INF>X</INF> in
the presence of sunlight. Ozone formation can be controlled to some
extent through reductions in emissions of the ozone precursors VOC and
NO<INF>X.</INF> Recent observational and modeling studies have found
that VOC emissions from oil and natural gas operations can impact ozone
levels.80 81 82 83 A significantly expanded body of
scientific evidence shows that ozone can cause a number of harmful
effects on health and the environment. Exposure to ozone can cause
respiratory system effects such as difficulty breathing and airway
inflammation. For people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), these effects can lead to
emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Studies have also found
that ozone exposure is likely to cause premature death from lung or
heart diseases. In addition, evidence indicates that long-term exposure
to ozone is likely to result in harmful respiratory effects, including
respiratory symptoms and the development of asthma. People most at risk
from breathing air containing ozone include: children; people with
asthma and other respiratory diseases; older adults; and people who are
active outdoors, especially outdoor workers. An estimated 25.9 million
people have asthma in the U.S., including almost 7.1 million children.
Asthma disproportionately affects children, families with lower
incomes, and minorities, including Puerto Ricans, Native Americans/
Alaska Natives, and African Americans.\84\
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\79\ Benzene Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)
Assessment: <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris2/chemicalLanding.cfm?substance_nmbr=276">https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris2/chemicalLanding.cfm?substance_nmbr=276</a>.
\80\ Benedict, K. B., Zhou, Y., Sive, B. C., Prenni, A. J.,
Gebhart, K. A., Fischer, E. V., . . . & Collett Jr, J. L. 2019.
Volatile organic compounds and ozone in Rocky Mountain National Park
during FRAPPE. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19(1), 499-521.
\81\ Lindaas, J., Farmer, D. K., Pollack, I. B., Abeleira, A.,
Flocke, F., & Fischer, E. V. 2019. Acyl peroxy nitrates link oil and
natural gas emissions to high ozone abundances in the Colorado Front
Range during summer 2015. Journal of Geophysical Research:
Atmospheres, 124(4), 2336-2350.
\82\ McDuffie, E. E., Edwards, P. M., Gilman, J. B., Lerner, B.
M., Dub[eacute], W. P., Trainer, M., . . . & Brown, S. S. 2016.
Influence of oil and gas emissions on summertime ozone in the
Colorado Northern Front Range. Journal of Geophysical Research:
Atmospheres, 121(14), 8712-8729.
\83\ Tzompa[hyphen]Sosa, Z. A., & Fischer, E. V. 2021. Impacts
of emissions of C2[hyphen]C5 alkanes from the US oil and gas sector
on ozone and other secondary species. Journal of Geophysical
Research: Atmospheres, 126(1), e2019JD031935.
\84\ National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Data, 2011. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/nhis/2011/data.htm">https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/nhis/2011/data.htm</a>.
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In the EPA's 2020 Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Ozone and
Related Photochemical Oxidants,\85\ the EPA estimated the incidence of
air pollution effects for those health endpoints above where the ISA
classified as either causal or likely-to-be-causal. In brief, the ISA
for ozone found short-term (less than one month) exposures to ozone to
be causally related to respiratory effects, a ``likely to be causal''
relationship with metabolic effects and a ``suggestive of, but not
sufficient to infer, a causal relationship'' for central nervous system
effects, cardiovascular effects, and total mortality. The ISA reported
that long-term exposures (one month or longer) to ozone are ``likely to
be causal'' for respiratory effects including respiratory mortality,
and a ``suggestive of, but not sufficient to infer, a causal
relationship'' for cardiovascular effects, reproductive effects,
central nervous system effects, metabolic effects, and total mortality.
An example of quantified incidence of ozone health effects can be found
in the Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Final Revised Cross-State Air
Pollution Rule (CSAPR) Update.\86\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\85\ Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Ozone and Related
Photochemical Oxidants (Final Report). U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-20/012, 2020.
\86\ U.S. EPA. Technical Support Document (TSD) for the Final
Revised Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Update for the 2008 Ozone
Season NAAQS Estimating PM 2.5-and Ozone-Attributable Health
Benefits. 2021. Research Triangle Park, NC.
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Scientific evidence also shows that repeated exposure to ozone can
reduce growth and have other harmful effects on sensitive plants and
trees. These types of effects have the potential to impact ecosystems
and the benefits they provide.
3. SO<INF>2</INF>
Current scientific evidence links short-term exposures to
SO<INF>2</INF>, ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours, with an array of
adverse respiratory effects including bronchoconstriction and increased
asthma symptoms. These effects are particularly important for
asthmatics at elevated ventilation rates (e.g., while exercising or
playing).
Studies also show an association between short-term exposure and
increased visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions for
respiratory illnesses, particularly in at-risk populations including
children, the elderly, and asthmatics.
SO<INF>2</INF> in the air can also damage the leaves of plants,
decrease their ability to produce food (photosynthesis), and decrease
their growth. In addition to directly affecting plants, SO<INF>2</INF>,
when deposited on land and in estuaries, lakes, and streams, can
acidify sensitive ecosystems resulting in a range of harmful indirect
effects on plants, soils, water quality, and fish and wildlife (e.g.,
changes in biodiversity and loss of habitat, reduced tree growth, loss
of fish species). Sulfur deposition to waterways also plays a causal
role in the methylation of mercury.\87\
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\87\ U.S. EPA. Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Oxides of
Nitrogen and Sulfur Ecological Criteria (2008 Final Report). U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-08/082F,
2008.
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B. Profile of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry and Its Emissions

This section of the preamble generally describes: the structure of
the oil and natural gas industry; the interconnected production,
processing, transmission and storage, and distribution segments that
move product from well to market; and types of emissions sources in
each segment and the industry's emissions.

[[Page 16842]]

1. Structure of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry
The EPA characterizes the oil and natural gas industry's operations
as being generally composed of four segments: (1) Extraction and
production of crude oil and natural gas (``oil and natural gas
production''), (2) natural gas processing, (3) natural gas transmission
and storage, and (4) natural gas distribution.88 89 The EPA
regulates oil refineries as a separate source category; accordingly, as
with the previous oil and gas NSPS rulemakings, for purposes of this
rulemaking, the EPA's focus for crude oil is on operations from the
well to the point of custody transfer at a petroleum refinery while the
focus for natural gas is on all operations from the well to the local
distribution company custody transfer station, commonly referred to as
the ``city-gate.'' \90\
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\88\ The EPA previously described an overview of the sector in
section 2.0 of the 2011 Background TSD to 40 CFR part 60, subpart
OOOO, located at Document ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505-0045, and
section 2.0 of the 2016 Background TSD to 40 CFR part 60, subpart
OOOOa, located at Document ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505-7631.
\89\ While generally oil and natural gas production includes
both onshore and offshore operations, 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOOa,
addresses onshore operations.
\90\ For regulatory purposes, the EPA defines the Crude Oil and
Natural Gas source category to mean (1) crude oil production, which
includes the well and extends to the point of custody transfer to
the crude oil transmission pipeline or any other forms of
transportation; and (2) natural gas production, processing,
transmission, and storage, which include the well and extend to, but
do not include, the local distribution company custody transfer
station. The distribution segment is not part of the defined source
category.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Production Segment
The oil and natural gas production segment includes the wells and
all related processes used in the extraction, production, recovery,
lifting, stabilization, and separation or treatment of oil and/or
natural gas (including condensate). Although many wells produce a
combination of oil and natural gas, wells can generally be grouped into
two categories: oil wells and natural gas wells. Oil wells comprise two
types, oil wells that produce crude oil only and oil wells that produce
both crude oil and natural gas (commonly referred to as ``associated''
gas). Production equipment and components located on the well pad may
include, but are not limited to: wells and related casing heads; tubing
heads; ``Christmas tree'' piping, pumps, and compressors; heater
treaters; separators; storage vessels; process controllers; pumps; and
dehydrators. Production operations include well drilling, completion,
and recompletion processes, including all the portable non-self-
propelled apparatuses associated with those operations.
Other sites that are part of the production segment include
``centralized tank batteries,'' stand-alone sites where oil,
condensate, produced water, and natural gas from several wells may be
separated, stored, or treated. The production segment also includes
gathering pipelines, gathering and boosting compressor stations, and
related components that collect and transport the oil, natural gas, and
other materials and wastes from the wells to the refineries or natural
gas processing plants.
Crude oil and natural gas undergo successive, separate processing.
Crude oil is separated from water and other impurities and transported
to a refinery via truck, railcar, or pipeline. As noted above, the EPA
treats oil refineries as a separate source category; accordingly, for
present purposes, the oil component of the production segment ends at
the point of custody transfer at the refinery.\91\
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\91\ See 40 CFR part 60, subparts J and Ja, and 40 CFR part 63,
subparts CC and UUU.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The separated, unprocessed natural gas is commonly referred to as
field gas and is composed of methane, natural gas liquids (NGL), and
other impurities such as water vapor, H<INF>2</INF>S, CO<INF>2</INF>,
helium, and nitrogen. Ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentane
are all considered NGL and often are sold separately for a variety of
different uses. Natural gas with high methane content is referred to as
``dry gas,'' while natural gas with significant amounts of ethane,
propane, or butane is referred to as ``wet gas.'' Natural gas is
typically sent to gas processing plants in order to separate NGLs for
use as feedstock for petrochemical plants, fuel for space heating and
cooking, or a component for blending into vehicle fuel.
b. Processing Segment
The natural gas processing segment consists of separating certain
hydrocarbons (HC) and fluids from the natural gas to produce ``pipeline
quality'' dry natural gas. The degree and location of processing is
dependent on factors such as the type of natural gas (e.g., wet or dry
gas), market conditions, and company contract specifications.
Typically, processing of natural gas begins in the field and continues
as the gas is moved from the field through gathering and boosting
compressor stations to natural gas processing plants, where the
complete processing of natural gas takes place. Natural gas processing
operations separate and recover NGL or other non-methane gases and
liquids from field gas through one or more of the following processes:
oil and condensate separation, water removal, separation of NGL, sulfur
and CO<INF>2</INF> removal, fractionation of NGL, and other processes,
such as the capture of CO<INF>2</INF> separated from natural gas
streams for delivery outside the facility.
c. Transmission and Storage Segment
Once natural gas processing is complete, the resulting natural gas
exits the natural gas process plant and enters the transmission and
storage segment where it is transmitted to storage and/or distribution
to the end user.
Pipelines in the natural gas transmission and storage segment can
be interstate pipelines, which carry natural gas across state
boundaries, or intrastate pipelines, which transport the gas within a
single state. Basic components of the two types of pipelines are the
same, though interstate pipelines may be of a larger diameter and
operated at a higher pressure. To ensure that the natural gas continues
to flow through the pipeline, the natural gas must periodically be
compressed, thereby increasing its pressure. Compressor stations
perform this function and are usually placed at 40- to 100-mile
intervals along the pipeline. At a compressor station, the natural gas
enters the station, where it is compressed by reciprocating or
centrifugal compressors.
Another part of the transmission and storage segment are
aboveground and underground natural gas storage facilities. Storage
facilities hold natural gas for use during peak seasons. The main
difference between underground and aboveground storage sites is that
storage takes place in storage vessels constructed of non-earthen
materials in aboveground storage. Underground storage of natural gas
typically occurs in depleted natural gas or oil reservoirs and salt
dome caverns. One purpose of this storage is for load balancing
(equalizing the receipt and delivery of natural gas). At an underground
storage site, typically other processes occur, including compression,
dehydration, and flow measurement.
d. Distribution Segment
The distribution segment provides the final step in delivering
natural gas to customers.\92\ The natural gas enters the distribution
segment from delivery points located along interstate and

[[Page 16843]]

intrastate transmission pipelines to business and household customers.
The delivery point where the natural gas leaves the transmission and
storage segment and enters the distribution segment is a local
distribution company's custody transfer station, commonly referred to
as the ``city-gate.'' Natural gas distribution systems consist of over
2 million miles of piping, including mains and service pipelines to the
customers. If the distribution network is large, compressor stations
may be necessary to maintain flow. However, these stations are
typically smaller than transmission compressor stations. Distribution
systems include metering stations and regulating stations, which allow
distribution companies to monitor the natural gas as it flows through
the system.
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\92\ The distribution segment is not included in the definition
of the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category in NSPS OOOO, NSPS
OOOOa, NSPS OOOOb, or EG OOOOc.
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2. Emissions From the Oil and Natural Gas Source Category
The oil and natural gas industry sector is the largest source of
industrial methane emissions in the U.S.\93\ Natural gas is composed
primarily of methane; every natural gas leak or intentional release
through venting or other industrial processes constitutes a release of
methane. Methane is a potent GHG; over a 100-year timeframe, it is
nearly 30 times more powerful at trapping climate warming heat than
CO<INF>2</INF>, and over a 20-year timeframe, it is 83 times more
powerful.\94\ Because methane is a powerful GHG and is emitted in large
quantities, reductions in methane emissions provide a significant
benefit in reducing

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