Summary

Amends the Clean Air Act to limit EPA’s ability to impose reporting requirements or a per-ton charge on certain small upstream oil and gas facilities, establish procedural safeguards, require transparency and consultation, and set a statutory end date for the charge program. It creates specific exemptions for facilities meeting size and emissions thresholds, delays any charge collection until several technical and funding conditions are met, mandates long public comment periods and an expedited appeals process, and requires EPA to publish plain-language calculation methods and consult with small facility owners.

Key Points

• Creates an exemption from reporting/charge rules for upstream oil and gas facilities with <25,000 t CO2e/year (as of Aug 16, 2022) and ≤2,500 employees.
• Prohibits EPA from requiring exempted facilities to prove eligibility and requires EPA to notify them publicly within 60 days.
• Bars charges for facilities that comply with specified NSPS standards and are in States meeting applicable SIP requirements.
• Delays any charge collection until EPA certifies that grant disbursements are complete and reporting rules use Administrator-validated emission factors, each satisfied for at least one year.
• Requires long public comment periods (90–120 days) for implementing rules and an expedited appeals rule for disputing charge amounts.
• Requires EPA to publish plain-language methods, emission factors, calculations, and supporting studies on its website within 60 days.
• Mandates consultation with small facility owners/operators to make reporting and calculations clear to them.
• Imposes a statutory sunset on the authority on December 31, 2034 and provides a private right to seek compensation for harms after termination.

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