A federal court ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration must enforce an Obama administration rule intended to cut methane emissions from natural gas drilling on public land.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management announced in December a two-year delay in implementing the Obama administration’s rule.
Environmental groups and state attorneys general sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. And on Thursday, Judge William Orrick granted a preliminary injunction against the BLM, blocking its effort to delay enforcement of the Obama rule.
“The BLM’s reasoning behind the suspension rule is untethered to evidence contradicting the reasons for implementing the Waste Prevention Rule, and so plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits,” Orrick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in the ruling.
The Obama rule requires oil and natural gas operations on public lands to capture natural gas that is leaked, vented, or flared. Methane, the main component in natural gas, is more potent than carbon dioxide, although its greenhouse gas emissions are relatively short-lived.
The Trump administration this month proposed a draft of a revised, more modest version of the Obama-era methane rule, arguing it was duplicative with federal regulations and state requirements that also regulate methane emissions. That means the court setback is likely temporary, since BLM is writing a new regulation that guts much of the Obama rule.
Still, environmental groups cheered Thursday’s court ruling.
“The court’s decision to block [Interior] Secretary [Ryan] Zinke’s unlawful suspension ensures the Waste Prevention Rule remains in place, protecting tribes, ranchers and families across the West,” said Peter Zalzal, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, a plaintiff in the suit. “The protections restored by today’s decision will help to prevent the waste of natural gas, reduce harmful methane, smog-forming and toxic pollution, and ensure communities and tribes have royalty money that can be used to construct roads and schools.”
