API says EPA’s one-size-fits-all emissions rules proposal is impractical

WASHINGTON, December 1, 2011 – API Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Howard Feldman said in a briefing today that EPA's proposed new source performance standards for oil and natural gas operations should be significantly revised in order to create practical, cost-effective rules:  

"The rules are important because they would over time affect hundreds of thousands of natural gas development operations.  If impractical, unnecessarily stringent, or excessively costly, they could depress domestic energy production, hurt workers and consumers, and reduce revenue to the government.   

"EPA can fix these rules so they reduce emissions yet still are compatible with oil and natural gas development that creates jobs, revenue and energy security.  . . A number of steps could be taken to improve the proposal.      

"We have strong concerns about the one-size-fits-all approach of the proposed rule to regulating an industry that varies greatly in the type, size and complexity of operations."   

API represents more than 490 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

Updated: December 1, 2011