A federal judge in North Dakota temporarily blocked a new rule aimed at curbing the waste of natural gas during fossil fuel drilling pending the outcome of a legal challenge brought by five states.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the “Waste Prevention, Copyright Production, and Resource Conservation” rule earlier this year that would require operators of oil and gas leases take steps to prevent waste, such as implementing leak detection and leak repair efforts, and limiting gas venting and twisting.
BLM officials say the percentage of natural gas lost to venting and fracking has more than doubled as the pace of oil and gas development on public lands has expanded in recent decades. According to BLM, the rule’s limits on blasting would generate more than $50 million in royalties each year.
However, officials in North Dakota, Montana, Texas, Wyoming and Utah filed suit challenging the rule, claiming it is an illegal regulation of air emissions that undermines their authority to regulate the quality of the air within its borders and would lead to economic damage due to the decrease of oil and gas development.
“At this preliminary stage, plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim, the 2024 rule is arbitrary and capricious,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in North Dakota in an order on September 12.
The rule’s added requirements for operators, such as including a waste management plan when applying for drilling permits, “do nothing more than delay oil and gas production in claimant states that have already prepared the regulatory approval of the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]Traynor wrote.
The EPA issued a separate rule in December and another in May aimed at reducing methane emissions and expanding reporting requirements. Those rules also face legal challenges from some state officials. Agencies have been targeting methane because it is a “super pollutant” that accelerates climate change, according to EPA officials.
The judge also denied BLM’s motion to move the lawsuit to federal court in Wyoming.
BLM officials did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the court order.
“North Dakota is a leader in energy production, so it only makes sense for our state to lead the legal challenge to the Biden administration’s unnecessary and duplicative methane rule, and this ruling is welcome progress in stopping overregulation that is handcuffing our domestic energy producers,” Senator John Hoeven (RND) said in a statement.
