American Petroleum Institute v. EPA

The American Petroleum Institute and the Gas Processors Association each filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking review of EPA’s 2014 revisions to the greenhouse gas reporting rule. The revisions made changes to the reporting requirements and confidentiality determinations for the petroleum and natural gas systems source category. Among criticisms leveled at the revised rule during the public comment period were (1) that the removal of the best available monitoring methods (BAMM) option would make compliance difficult for some reporters and could have adverse impacts in other areas, such as the development of new technologies, and (2) that the revised rule increased the reporting burden for gas well completions and workovers by requiring reporters to differentiate between well type combinations. (“Well type combination” takes into account the following factors: vertical or horizontal, with flaring or without flaring, and reduced emissions completion (REC)/workover or no REC/workover.) Commenters also asserted that in general EPA had “significantly oversimplified the impacts and underestimated the burden” of the rule.