Illinois is joining more than a dozen other states in trying to force the Environmental Protection Agency’s hand on methane pollution standards.
A motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asks the court to find that EPA’s nearly four-year delay in fulfilling its obligation to establish methane standards for existing oil and gas sources is unreasonable, and to set a schedule requiring the agency to move forward swiftly.
Existing oil and natural-gas sources are the largest industrial emitter of methane, and the Clean Air Act requires the agency to regulate methane from both new and existing sources.
The White House is expected to release a new methane rule this month on new sources that is more limited, and according to the EPA, would eliminate redundant regulations from the oil and gas industry.
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