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GOP-led states urge Supreme Court to pause EPA plan aimed at cutting methane emissions by 80%
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GOP-led states urge Supreme Court to pause EPA plan aimed at cutting methane emissions by 80%



CNN

Republican officials in 24 states asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt a Biden administration effort to curb emissions of the planet-warming gas methane, adding to a series of emergency appeals challenging environmental regulations.

The states, led by Oklahoma, are asking the Supreme Court to delay an Environmental Protection Agency rule that took effect earlier this year that the agency says will reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations by nearly 80 percent through 2038.

The latest filing is part of a much broader campaign by groups opposing the Biden administration’s environmental regulations, a campaign that has repeatedly resonated with the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in recent years.

Many of the same states and industry groups have filed other emergency appeals in recent weeks challenging various regulations, including those designed to limit power plant pollution and mercury emissions.

An appeals court in Washington DC previously denied the states’ request to suspend the new methane regulations.

Methane, the main component of natural gas and a byproduct of fossil fuel drilling, is a potent source of climate pollution. During its first two decades in the atmosphere, methane has a warming potential more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide.

The states accused the EPA of “seeking tools to address this administration’s concerns about climate change.” They told the Supreme Court that the EPA’s requirement that states develop plans within a two-year period would be “impossible.”

Given the agency’s history of regulation, the states said, the “attack” on “the oil and gas industry comes as no surprise.”

The Supreme Court will likely take at least several weeks to consider the request.

A 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court in June shut down Biden’s effort to reduce smog and air pollution blowing across state lines in what was known as the “good neighbor” rule. That case also had been placed on the court’s emergency agenda. In recent years, the court has also rolled back or suspended other rules that limited power plant emissions and water quality.

CNN’s Ella Nilsen contributed to this report.