Denver Federal Appeals Court Rules Against New Mexico in Methane Flaring Fight

A move by the state of New Mexico along with California and environmental groups to revive the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste rule was rejected this week by the Denver Federal Appeals court. The ruling means some aspects of the controversial rule will be stayed while the 10th U.S.  Circuit considers a lower court decision that halted the standards.

The original rule was stayed by a judge while the U.S. Interior Department continues efforts to roll back the Obama-era rule. This week’s decision came in a split 2-1 decision in which critics of the rule argued it failed to meet a “four-factor” test that considers the possibility of irreparable harm  or success.

New Mexico and others maintain the BLM’s Waste Prevention Standards require common sense measures to reduce leaks of natural gas from wells on federal and tribal lands.  They contend there was enough natural gas wastes by energy companies between 2009 and 2015 to supply more than 6.2 million homes for a full year.

The states also argued the waste of the methane gas costs taxpayers and tribes millions of dollars.

The standards are opposed by Attorneys General of Texas, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming along with oil and gas industry groups Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America.

The lone dissenter in the decision, Judge Scott Matheson wrote that he wanted a district judge who froze the rule to have applied the four-factor test more explicitly than he first did.

An attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund which is one of the environmental groups challenging the stay contends the rule not only saves natural gas but reduces toxic and smog-forming pollution and delivers economic benefits to people across the West.