AG Drummond has an environmental legal fight on his hands

  • March 20, 2024

 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and 23 other attorneys general who sued the EPA over the agency’s oil and gas methane rule aren’t alone in legal efforts regarding the rule. They now have a fight on their hands.

Twenty Democratic state attorneys general filed a motion this week in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial rule. Led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the Democrats, the states came out in support of the rule considered the first to regulate emissoins from existing oil and gas production operations.

“Once again, we are seeing baseless attacks on efforts to combat climate change and tackle methane emissions,” said Bonta in a statement.
He said the “super polllutant” has been overlooked for years while the oil and gas industry allowed large quantities of greenhouse gas to leak into the environment. Bonta used the terms “carelessly and knowingly” to describe the actions of the oil and gas industry.
“The Biden Administration’s rule is a critical step forward, and I, alongside attorneys general across this country, won’t stand idly by as necessary solutions to address the dire reality of the climate crisis fueled by methane emissions are being blatantly attacked.”

California’s attorney general was joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

 

Jerry Bohnen