D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Grants Emergency Motion by Environmental Integrity Project and Partners and Orders that EPA Cannot Block Oil and Gas Methane Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a major win for the climate and human health, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today vacated the Trump Administration’s attempt to halt EPA standards that reduce the oil and gas industry’s emissions of methane and hazardous air pollutants.
The order means that oil and gas companies must now comply with the methane rule’s standards, including the central requirement to find and promptly repair leaks, in order to reduce “fugitive” emissions.
“The court’s decision today is a vindication for individuals and communities who want better health and real action to prevent climate change,” said Adam Kron, senior attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project. “In attempting to halt and delay these important standards without any legal basis, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was putting his friends in the oil and gas industry ahead of his duty to all Americans. But the Clean Air Act and the rule of law carried the day today.”
On June 5, Pruitt announced his action to “stay” the methane rule’s requirements for 90 days in light of petitions filed by oil and gas industry groups. The announcement came just a week after the Trump Administration decided to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. Pruitt also announced plans to halt the requirements permanently and to reopen the 2016 rulemaking
That same day, the Environmental Integrity Project and five partner environmental organizations—Clean Air Council, Earthworks, Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club—filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to temporarily halt or wholly reject EPA’s action. The groups claimed—and the court has now agreed—that EPA lacked legal authority under the Clean Air Act to stay the rule’s requirements.
The methane rule is projected to reduce 510,000 tons of the greenhouse gas by 2025. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. The leak detection and repair requirements in the rule are projected to achieve more than half of its reduction of methane, as well as 90 percent of its reduction of hazardous air pollutants and one third to one half of its reductions of smog-forming pollutants. EPA has admitted that staying these requirements may have disproportionately negative impacts on children’s health.
Polls suggest that Americans support federal efforts to limit methane pollution. March 2017 polling by Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions and WPA Research found that strong majorities (roughly 60 percent of respondents) in Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, and Tennessee want to maintain and improve standards to reduce methane pollution.
The Environmental Integrity Project is a 15-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, based in Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas, that is dedicated to the enforcement of environmental laws and the protection of public health.
For a copy of the court decision, click here.
Media Contact: Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, 202-888-2703, tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
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