EPA Reopens Methane Rules: Proposal Would Rescind Super Emitter Program

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Thursday a package of amendments to the New Source Performance Standards and Emission Guidelines for the Crude Oil and Natural Gas Source Category, including the rescission of the Super Emitter Program created in 2024. The proposal, signed by Administrator Lee Zeldin, is published in the Federal Register of 29 October 2026 under Docket No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2025–0163, Regulatory Identifier Number RIN 2060–AW73 and document reference FRL–12726–01–OAR. Comments must be received on or before 16 December 2026, and the agency has scheduled a virtual public hearing for 13 November 2026.

What the agency wants to change

The action revisits the amendments finalized in March 2024, which the EPA now says merit substantive regulatory change after its own review and after petitions for reconsideration. The agency lists five blocks of changes:

• Rescinding the Super Emitter Program, which uses remote-sensing detections of large methane releases to trigger operator investigations.
• Subcategorizing different types of well sites and designated facilities, with competing options for “marginal” wells and for “conventional” wells.
• Revising requirements on liquids unloading, process controllers, pumps, fugitive emissions, storage vessels, covers and closed vent systems, equipment leaks at gas plants, and associated gas.
• Changing some control-device requirements and letting owners and operators use optical gas imaging surveys under Appendix K at gas processing facilities.
• Correcting inadvertent errors and clarifying regulatory language in 40 CFR part 60, subparts OOOO, OOOOa, OOOOb and OOOOc.

The agency frames the package as deregulatory, stating that no adverse impacts are associated with the proposed and co-proposed changes, which it says would reduce burdens and compliance difficulties for the oil and gas industry.

The super emitter fight

The EPA had defended the Super Emitter Program as a backstop for events of 100 kilograms per hour or more of methane, which it said could account for almost 50 percent of the sector’s methane emissions. It now proposes rescission on the grounds that the program rests on insufficient evidence about the nature and duration of such short events, and that implementation has proved difficult. Future implementation had already been deferred to 22 January 2027.

Wells, volumes and the cost question

A central element is the treatment of low-production sites. The EPA notes that wells producing less than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day are the most numerous type of existing well in the United States, making up more than 78 to 80 percent of existing oil and gas wells while accounting for roughly 7 percent of total U.S. oil and gas produced in 2024. It is co-proposing two routes: a production-based “marginal” well subcategory, or a subcategory defined by well type. It also asks whether routine flaring of associated gas should be allowed where routing gas to a sales line is technically infeasible, citing cases in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Texas and Oklahoma.

How to take part

• Comments: Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov, email a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, or mail to the EPA Docket Center, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460.
• Comment deadline: 16 December 2026; comments on the information collection provisions are best assured of consideration if the Office of Management and Budget receives a copy by 30 November 2026.
• Hearing: virtual public hearing 13 November 2026; the notice also lists a virtual platform session on 16 November 2026.
• Speakers: pre-registration closes 10 November 2026, with four minutes of oral testimony each; accessibility requests are due 9 November 2026.
• Contacts: Paz Aviles, Natural Resources Division, Office of Clean Air Programs, (202) 564–9822; hearing team at (888) 372–8699 and NRDpublichearing@epa.gov.

The outcome matters directly to well operators, gas processing plants and midstream pipeline companies, which face a changed compliance map on leak detection, flaring and storage vessels if the proposal is finalized — and to states that must write plans under the existing guidelines. Any operator that has already built compliance programmes around the 2024 rule now has a defined window to argue its case in the docket before the record closes.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 208, 29 October 2026, Proposed Rules, p. 68234 (official reference: 2026–22082; Docket EPA–HQ–OAR–2025–0163).