On March 2, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued notice that the agency is withdrawing its requests that owners and operators in the oil and natural gas industry provide information on equipment and emissions at existing oil and natural gas facilities. Upon publication in the Federal Register, the notice will formally withdraw the Information Collection Request issued by EPA in 2016 to more than 15,000 owners and operators in the oil and natural gas industry.
The ICR was comprised of two parts, an “operator survey” that requested basic information on the numbers and types of equipment at onshore oil and gas production facilities and a “facility survey” that requested detailed information on sources of methane emissions and emissions control devices or practices.
EPA states in the notice that the “withdrawal is occurring because EPA would like to assess the need for the information that the agency was collecting through these requests, and reduce burdens on businesses while the Agency assesses such need. This also comes after the Agency received a letter on March 1, 2017 from nine state Attorneys General and the Governors of Mississippi and Kentucky, expressing concern with the burdens on businesses imposed by the pending requests.”