Press Releases
07/06/2020
Attorney General Tong Joins Coalition Demanding Trump EPA Do Its Job to Control Methane Pollution
Coalition: EPA Disregards its Legal Obligation to Curb Methane Emissions from Existing Oil and Gas Operations, Endangering Health and Safety of Communities
(Hartford, CT)– Attorney General William Tong joined a coalition of 15 attorneys general and the City of Chicago in a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the Trump Administration must stop ignoring its legal responsibility to control emissions of methane from existing oil and gas operations. The action is a part of a lawsuit brought in April 2018 against the Environmental Protection Agency for violating the federal Clean Air Act by “unreasonably delaying” its mandatory obligation under the Act to control methane emissions from existing oil and gas operations for four years.Today’s motion, co-led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the Environmental Defense Fund, asks the Court to grant summary judgment in favor of Plaintiffs, declare EPA’s four-year delay unreasonable, and order EPA to develop and expeditiously issue a rule to control methane emissions from existing sources in oil and gas operations.
“Again and again, Donald Trump’s EPA has neglected its duty to protect the American people and our environment from harmful emissions. And every time, Connecticut and her sister states have taken action to force them to do their job,” Tong said. “Curbing methane emissions is critical to slowing climate change, and the Trump administration’s failure to promulgate the required regulations further underlines their blatant disregard for science and the law, as well as their continual prioritizing of corporate interests over human health and safety and the environment.”
Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, warming the climate about 80-times more than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. Oil and gas operations – production, processing, transmission, and distribution – are the largest single industrial source of methane emissions in the U.S. and the second largest industrial source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions behind only electric power plants. About 850,000 existing oil and gas sources account for the majority of emissions from that sector. Based on EPA data, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that roughly $1.5 billion worth of natural gas – enough to heat over 5 million homes – leaks or is intentionally released from the oil and gas supply chain each year. The logic of continuing to allow leaks and intentional discharges of methane is especially dubious, as methane itself is a valuable product, being the primary component of natural gas.
Since at least 2016, the Clean Air Act has required EPA to regulate methane from existing sources in oil and gas operations. Recognizing its statutory duty, and the urgency of reducing dangerous emissions, in 2016 EPA set a course to “swiftly” develop regulations for methane emissions from these sources. Had the agency stayed on course, it would have already issued existing source methane regulations. Instead, in early 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt abruptly pulled the plug on the process, effectively terminating all agency work to promulgate a regulation. The coalition argues that the Pruitt stopped the process without any consideration of the law or facts, and with no public input, putting our communities and our climate at risk.
Joining Attorney General Tong in today’s motion for summary judgment are the Attorneys General of California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia, and the City of Chicago.
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