Four Republican-led states have sued the U.S. Interior Department to block a rule that cracks down on leaks of planet-warming methane during oil and gas drilling on public lands.
Texas, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming filed the lawsuit in North Dakota federal court on Wednesday, challenging a rule finalized in March by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requiring drillers to develop plans to detect leaks, make repairs and minimize waste of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The rule also requires drillers to pay royalties for natural gas lost during methane flaring or venting if those losses are considered to have been avoidable.
The challengers said the rule will make oil and gas development more expensive, and ultimately reduce production. That will mean the loss of tens of millions of dollars in royalties and taxes paid to the states that currently fund schools, roads and local governments, among other harms, they said.
The states said the rule violates federal land management and mineral laws and infringes on their ability to develop air pollution plans and regulations in coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Clean Air Act. They are asking the court to vacate the rule, which goes into effect in June.
BLM, part of the Interior Department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The Interior Department said in March that the rule would stop billions of cubic feet of gas from being vented, flared or leaked. That would generate more than $50 million in additional royalty payments to the federal government each year, it said.
BLM has said the new rule fixed legal errors identified in 2020 by a Wyoming federal court, which vacated an earlier methane waste rule finalized by the Obama administration.
The agency said the new rule reduced compliance costs and excluded climate change benefits from its cost-benefit analysis. The 2020 decision found that anticipated climate change benefits were given too much weight in the earlier rule.
The case is State of North Dakota et al. v. The United States Department of Interior et al., in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, case No. 1:24-cv-00066.
For the states: North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill
For the Interior Department: Not yet available
(Reporting by Clark Mindock)