On February 21, 2025, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) adopted new rules to phase out polluting pneumatic controllers and pneumatic pumps at oil and gas production sites and to improve the state’s monitoring and reporting program for drilling and early production operations. Kaplan Kirsch attorneys Tom Bloomfield, Sarah Judkins, Tim Roth, and Sarah Keane represented Environmental Defense Fund and Colorado Communities for Climate Action (a coalition of 44 public entities throughout Colorado) throughout the rulemaking. The Firm played a key role in negotiating consensus on the primary elements of the rule, with the Air Pollution Control Division, oil and gas operators and other non-profit organizations.

Pneumatic controllers are the second largest source of methane — a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change — from the state’s oil and gas industry. They are also a source of ozone precursor emissions and hazardous air pollutants. Colorado is now the first state in the nation to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for reducing methane emissions from existing oil and gas sites. Further, the rules adopted by the AQCC are more aggressive than the federal standards because they accelerate the phase-out schedule for pneumatic controllers that emit methane in several important respects.

The rule will also improve monitoring and reporting for oil and gas drilling and early production periods. This program will provide important information about emissions during the early phase of oil and gas production, which in turn will better inform oil and gas operators, state regulators and the public about the nature and cause of these emissions and how they can be avoided. While this monitoring program is unique to Colorado, the data can be used to identify and improve emission control programs for such activities in other jurisdictions as well.

Additional information may be found here (The Denver Gazette) or here (The Environmental Defense Fund).