EDF, Partners Urge Court to Protect Standards that will Prevent Waste of Public Resources

(Washington, D.C. – July 10, 2017) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and 16 other health, environmental and conservation groups filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California today seeking to keep standards in place that will prevent the waste of public and tribal resources by the oil and gas industry.

The complaint asks the court to block Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s attempt to suspend the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Waste Prevention Standards indefinitely without public comment. 

“BLM’s standards reduce the waste of natural gas on public and tribal lands, protecting these resources while reducing the harmful air pollution associated with this development,” said EDF Lead Attorney Peter Zalzal. “We look forward to presenting our case for why Secretary Zinke should not be allowed to bypass bedrock legal protections and just suspend the standards.”

The case challenges BLM’s decision to indefinitely suspend compliance deadlines for certain provisions of its Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation Rule. 

The standards limits the amount of valuable natural gas that oil and gas companies can leak, vent, or flare on millions of acres of public and tribal lands – a problem that results in harmful air pollution and costs taxpayers money. Since 2013, more than 1.6 billion dollars of natural gas has been squandered on public and tribal lands.

The Attorneys General of California and New Mexico also filed a legal challenge seeking to overturn the suspension last week. Today EDF and its partners asked the court to block Secretary Zinke from staying the rule by administrative fiat, which would benefit the worst actors in the oil and gas industry. 

Today’s complaint says:

“The stay harms … the public by reducing royalty payments and allowing waste of public natural gas resources and excessive air pollution that would otherwise be controlled under the Rule.” (Complaint, page 2) 

Attempts to delay or revoke the standards have already failed in both the courts and Congress.

Opponents of the standards asked a federal district court in Wyoming for a preliminary injunction, which would have put the standards on hold indefinitely. In January, the court denied that request. 

In May, opponents attempted to repeal the standards using the Congressional Review Act, but the vote in the Senate fell short.

In June – without providing any notice or opportunity for public comment – BLM announced that it would indefinitely stay the standards “pending judicial review.” A few days later, BLM asked the Wyoming court to delay judicial review for at least 90 days (the court granted that request). 

The BLM methane waste rule enjoys broad support. More than 80 percent of Western voters, who live and work near public lands, support this rule, and more than two-thirds of voters across the country want to keep the rule in place.

BLM’s standards are separate from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) clean air standards to reduce pollution from oil and gas facilities. EPA held a public hearing on its standards today. 

You can find more information about the issue– and all legal documents in the case – on EDF’s website.