Court turns down hearing for methane rule

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has turned down a request for an en banc hearing of the appeal over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed deferral of implementation of a new rule placing limits on methane and some other emissions from new or modified oil and gas facilities. In early July a panel of three D.C. Circuit Court judges upheld an appeal against EPA’s deferral rule. Some intervenors in the case, including the American Petroleum Institute, subsequently petitioned for an en banc hearing, which would have involved all of the justices in the court, and not just the panel of three. However, on Aug. 10 the court turned down the petition.

The rule in question, introduced by the Obama administration, required industry compliance by June 3. But in April Scott Pruitt, the new EPA administrator, said that he was staying the compliance requirement by 90 days - petitioners from the oil and gas industry had requested reconsideration of the rule. And on June 16 EPA announced for public comment a proposal to extend the stay for two years, to enable a review of the entire rule. That proposal has now been rejected by the court.

Pruitt has argued that, because the public had not been given the opportunity to comment on some regulations within the Obama-era rule, the rule could be reconsidered. However, the D.C. Circuit Court has disagreed, saying that the public had in fact been given ample opportunity to comment on all of the issues encapsulated by the final version of the rule.

- ALAN BAILEY