Attorney General Gentner Drummond and a 25-state coalition he is leading have filed a motion to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new methane emissions rule.
Filed Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the motion follows a petition introduced last month by Drummond and the coalition of 24 state attorneys general and a state legislature.
“The new methane emissions rule is yet another attack on our oil and gas industry by the Biden Administration,” Drummond said. “I am honored to work with my colleagues from across the country to stop the economic turmoil of these rules before it’s too late.”
The motion asks the court to stay the rule while it decides the petition for review, noting that the states are likely to succeed on the merits and that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm unless it’s granted.
The petition asks the D.C. Circuit to vacate the final rule issued March 8 by the EPA entitled “Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review.” Coalition states argue that the rule exceeds the EPA’s statutory authority, is an abuse of discretion and is otherwise not in accordance with the law.
According to the filing, the rule imposes expensive and unjustified new technology and monitoring requirements; imposes new storage and transportation requirements; adds new source performance standards; and creates a “Super Emitter” program that third-party environmental advocacy groups can use to harass producers.
Also signing the motion to stay are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, as well as the Arizona state legislature.
The motion can be read here.