EPA methane rule under attack as 13 states sue

August 16th, 2016 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

The Environmental Protection Agency's rule to mitigate the emission of methane from oil and natural gas sites faces some serious pushback as a group of 13 states recently sued the environmental regulator over that new standard. Announced by the White House and EPA in May, the rule is brand new and the first of its kind to specifically target methane in the oil and natural gas industry. Now, there are real questions about the presence of the environmental regulation in the long term. Should the group of states' lawsuit prove successful, there may be a major reversal in store for this first set of oil industry-specific methane rules.

West Virgina leads the action
West Virginia is a state known for its economic focus on mining and other energy industry activity as well as for having an attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, who has been a vocal critic of and led other actions against the EPA in recent years. Political news source The Hill said Morrisey called the regulations unnecessary and believes they will cause significant additional spending on the part of oil and natural gas companies.

"This is yet another example of unlawful federal overreach jeopardizing West Virginia jobs and working families," Morrisey said in a statement shared by The Hill. "The rules are a solution in search of a problem and ignore the industry's success in voluntarily reducing methane emissions from these sources to a 30-year low."

The rules are part of an overarching plan laid out by the Obama administration and the EPA to significantly reduce methane emissions overall. The EPA's announcement of the standards shows an end goal of reducing methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry by 40 to 45 percent in 2025, as compared to levels recorded in 2012. The EPA fielded an exceptionally large number of comments about the regulations before they were announced, with approximately 90,000 comments fielded and used to update various aspects of its original proposal made in 2015.

The Hill said the other states participating in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

While it's too early in the process to know if this action will have on the methane regulations - and if that resolution will involve a complete removal of the rule or changes to it - this lawsuit is the second one filed by a state in recent months. The Hill reported a similar suit was filed by North Dakota in July.