Oklahoma Joins Lawsuits Challenging EPA’s New Methane Emissions Rules.

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Put Oklahoma on the list of the states and groups that have sued the Environmental Protection Agency in a challenge of the agency’s new federal regulations for methane emissions at oil and natural gas locations.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt joined the suits on Tuesday, claiming the EPA does not have the legal authority to create the rules in an effort to control greenhouse gas in the U.S. Texas and North Dakota filed suit last week and industry groups including the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance had also sued the EPA.

“The industry has been steadily lowering methane emissions levels for years, and had the Obama administration conducted a proper cost-benefit analysis, which they are required to do, we are confident they would have found that the cost of this new rule outweighs the benefit,” said Will Gattenby, a Pruitt spokesman who responded to The Oklahoman.

Tuesday was the deadline for the filing of lawsuits challenging the new methane rules which are an update to 2012 standards. The new rules also apply to hydraulically-fractured wells and other equipment in oil and gas production.

The Obama administration implemented them in efforts to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by more than 40 percent from the 2012 levels by 2025.