The Environmental Protection Agency asked a federal appeals court Friday to hold off from enforcing its decision to allow Obama-era methane rules for fracking to move forward as it weighs its options for appeal.
The agency asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for “relief from immediate compliance” with its Monday ruling, which said Trump’s EPA lacked the legal authority to delay the methane rules on oil and natural gas drillers for two years while it mulled repealing the rule.
The EPA asked that the court “recall” its mandate enforcing its July 3 decision, giving it time to “consider whether to seek further review of the court’s … decision.” The agency noted that the court has “inherent authority to recall its mandate,” although it historically has done so “sparingly and in extraordinary circumstances.”
The emission rules were scheduled to go into effect Monday after the EPA lost the case to uphold its two-year stay. It asked the court to hold off from issuing its mandate as the agency explores its legal options to appeal the decision for 45 days.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had argued that the Obama administration did not follow administrative procedure because it did not let the energy industry adequately respond to the proposed regulations. But the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Pruitt’s assessment.
“The administrative record thus makes clear that industry groups had ample opportunity to comment on all four issues on which EPA granted reconsideration, and indeed, that in several instances the agency incorporated those comments directly into the final rule,” the court’s 2-1 ruling read.
“Because it was thus not ‘impracticable’ for industry groups to have raised such objections during the notice and comment period [the law] did not require reconsideration and did not authorize the stay.”
Environmentalists touted the victory as making clear that Pruitt lacks the authority to roll back the methane regulations, which were part of Obama’s climate change agenda. Methane is a short-lived, but potent, greenhouse gas, blamed by many climate scientists for driving manmade climate change.
