Two petitions were filed in the federal district court for the District of Wyoming challenging the United States Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule concerning methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal and tribal lands. BLM said that the rule would cut flaring in half, curbing waste of public resources and reducing harmful methane emissions. One petition was filed by Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America; the other was filed by Wyoming and Montana. The states called the regulations “a blatant attempt by a land management agency to impose air quality regulations on existing oil and gas operations under the guise of waste prevention” and charged that BLM did not have authority to regulate. The states asserted that the regulations’ air quality controls conflicted with those established by EPA and the states under the Clean Air Act, and that the rule unlawfully attempted to take over regulation of state leases when state and federal tracts were combined through communitization agreements. The oil and gas trade groups also asserted that BLM was without authority to regulate air quality and also argued that the rule placed arbitrary limits on flaring; relied on flawed scientific, engineering, and economic assumptions and methodologies; improperly relied on EPA air quality rules; and conflicted with or usurped the primary jurisdiction of state and tribal governments. North Dakota has intervened in the state proceeding. 

Challenge to United States Bureau of Land Management’s final rule concerning methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal and tribal lands.

Wyoming v. United States Department of Interior

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States, Oil and Gas Groups Challenged BLM Methane Rule for Oil and Gas Operations

Filed

United States of America

Wyoming

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States, Oil and Gas Groups Challenged BLM Methane Rule for Oil and Gas Operations

Risk

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector