Media’s Recent EPA Blunder Reminds Us: Oil and Natural Gas Regulatory Framework Is Robust and Complex

In a recent interview, CNN’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir – a person who by all accounts is fluent in climate policy and the actions being taken by governments to reduce global methane emissions – claimed that the Environmental Protection Agency was rushing and left typos in its press releases this week about upcoming regulatory overhauls. “Oops.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was quick to offer a correction and explanation that OOOO b/c is not a bunch of random zeroes but part of the EPA’s complex regulatory framework.

Another media “fact check” face plant where the fact checker doesn’t have the slightest clue what he’s talking about. “OOOO b/c” is not a typo.

40 CFR Part 60 Subpart OOOO, or Quad O, is a federal reg under the Clean Air Act.

Also, those aren’t zeroes, it’s the letter “O”. pic.twitter.com/adPkShbPHS

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) March 13, 2025

This incident is a stark reminder that the U.S. oil and natural gas industry is highly regulated and those regulations are pretty complex. The regulatory environment is so complex, in fact, that even some of the people who speak regularly about energy aren’t familiar with the often burdensome and duplicative regulations that the industry adheres to.

As Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President & CEO Jeff Eshelman explained in a  statement on the EPA’s announcement, “subparts OOOOb and OOOOc are regulatory programs which if implemented as currently structured could result in 300,000 small, existing wells being shut down.”

Bottom Line: The industry is reducing its emissions without adding more regulations. As a recent EID analysis of EPA data found, methane emissions are declining in the top U.S. oil and gas basins, even as production has gone up. That’s not because of the regulations that EPA is now reconsidering but thanks to innovations and the voluntary efforts of oil and gas producers, like the Environmental Partnership.

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