Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued to prevent the expansion of authority taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by means of a rule aimed at regulating methane and other emissions from sources in the oil and natural gas industry.
The EPA’s new rule establishes stringent emissions standards for the oil and gas industry that would require producers to drastically update infrastructure. Additionally, the rule usurps the States’ role in establishing emissions standards for existing sources and establishes new guidelines that mirror the Federal standards for new sources. EPA’s rule violates fundamental principles of federalism by forcing the States to adopt Federal standards as their own in an unlawful attempt to regulate existing sources.
The rule has been developed despite the Clean Air Act’s clear requirements for findings as to specific emissions and emission sources. Instead of making such findings, the EPA relies upon its past rules that Texas and other states challenged as illegal. Attorney General Paxton filed the petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
“The EPA is once again trying to seize regulatory authority that Congress has not granted,” said Attorney General Paxton. “I am challenging this blatant overreach by the Biden Administration and will continue to defend vital sectors of the Texas economy.”