North Dakota federal judge Daniel Traynor put the brakes on a new Biden administration rule to reduce flaring of natural gas at oil wells across the country.
“At this preliminary stage, the plaintiffs have shown they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim the 2024 Rule is arbitrary and capricious,” ruled the judge on Friday.
His ruling came in a lawsuit filed by North Dakota, Montana, Texas, Wyoming and Utah as they challenged the 2024 rule. The states argued that rule would harm oil and gas production and that Interior Department was going beyond its regulatory authority on non-federal minerals and air pollution.
The Associated Press reported that U.S. District Judge Traynor added that the rules “add nothing more than a layer of federal regulation on top of existing federal regulation.”
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