After BLM finalized a rule to replace the Obama administration’s Waste Prevention Rule for oil and gas development on public lands, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as moot an appeal of a district court order enjoining enforcement of the Obama-era rule. The Tenth Circuit also vacated the district court’s order. The Tenth Circuit did not, however, order the district court to dismiss the challenge to the Waste Prevention Rule. The court noted that although adoption of a new rule typically moots a challenge to the rule it replaces, in this case the replacement rule removed “almost all” of the Waste Prevention Rule’s requirements, leaving some requirements in place. For this reason, the Tenth Circuit concluded that “[w]e do not see any harm in allowing the district court to decide in the first instance whether the entire case is moot.”

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. U.S. Department of the Interior

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Tenth Circuit Dismissed Moot Appeal of Order Enjoining Obama Administration’s Waste Prevention Rule

Filed

United States of America

Wyoming

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Tenth Circuit Dismissed Moot Appeal of Order Enjoining Obama Administration’s Waste Prevention Rule

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