On March 2, 2017, new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt made it clear that he will follow through on President Trump's promise to reduce regulatory burdens by withdrawing the Information Collection Request (ICR) that the Obama EPA issued last November to force the oil and natural gas industry to produce substantial amounts of detailed information about methane emissions from existing oil and gas operations. Although this action has long been expected, it is another signal that the Trump Administration will not be pursuing an aggressive climate change agenda.

The November 2016 ICR was aimed at gathering information to help EPA assess possible approaches for reducing methane emissions from existing oil and gas sources – following EPA’s May 2016 rule that required methane and volatile organic compound emissions reductions from new, modified, and reconstructed sources in the oil and natural gas source category.

Following EPA’s withdrawal of the ICR, recipients of existing source methane information requests issued under Section 114 of the Federal Clean Air Act – two-part “surveys” issued in November 2016 – are no longer required to respond.

Click here to read the withdrawal notice.