The WEC Rule would impose fees for oil and gas facilities reporting a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

On January 26, 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register a proposed new rule that will charge oil and gas facilities a fee for methane emissions exceeding a certain threshold. The Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems regulation (the WEC Rule), implemented pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), explains rule applicability, how the emissions threshold would be calculated, and circumstances in which facilities may be exempt from the fee. EPA estimates that this program, once implemented, will reduce cumulative methane emissions by over 960,000 metric tons by 2035.