The Trump administration has lost three rounds of litigation over its efforts to weaken methane restrictions for oil and gas on public lands, but the fate of Obama-era safeguards is still in the hands of federal judges.
A federal district court on Wednesday threw out the Bureau of Land Management’s industry-friendly replacement of the 2016 rule designed to reduce drillers’ emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The bureau’s move violated multiple federal laws and featured “myriad inadequacies,” the judge said.
“We completely disagree with the court’s ruling,” Bureau of Land Management spokesman Derrick Henry said Thursday. “Our common-sense ...