Republican-led states are calling for the Supreme Court to temporarily block EPA from requiring existing oil and gas facilities to curb their methane emissions.
The states’ application to the Supreme Court’s emergency — or “shadow” — docket Tuesday is the latest attempt to delay compliance with part of the new rule while litigation is ongoing. A lower court declined to halt the rule earlier this summer.
Allowing the rule to go into effect will force states to crack down on hundreds of thousands of oil and gas facilities, which many states have never regulated before, said Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who led the Supreme Court plea.
“Staying the Rule’s effects until the courts have reached a decision on the merits will not impose any measurable harm on EPA or the public, particularly given the longterm nature of the climate-change concerns that the Rule is intended to address,” Drummond wrote.
