The EPA issues new air pollution rule; key Republicans object

摘要

Despite objections from some key Republican lawmakers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule on air pollution for the oil and natural gas industry on April 18, including the first-ever national standards on air pollution from hydrauli-cally fractured gas wells. The New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for crude oil and natural gas production require onshore gas wells to use reduced emissions completions (also known as "green completions") to capture volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions that escape during the fracturing process.