December 04, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Health, environment, and community groups have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the Trump EPA’s rushed and unlawful final rule to delay protections against methane pollution from the oil and gas industry.
The rule would delay implementation of many of the requirements in the 2024 U.S. EPA methane standards – which keep dangerous pollution out of our air and reduce wasted energy from oil and gas leaks, venting and flaring – in spite of widespread community opposition, deep concerns about risks to human health, and a pending lawsuit challenging an Interim Final rule announced by the Trump administration earlier this year that contained identical extensions for many of the same deadlines.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a climate pollutant that is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. It is responsible for almost 30% of the global warming that we have experienced so far, and it is helping drive climate change and its worsening floods, wildfires, heatwaves and other severe weather events that are harming people across the country.
The 2024 standards reduce methane pollution through commonsense steps like requiring leak detection and repairs. Those steps also reduce the emissions of other dangerous pollutants, including smog and soot-forming volatile organic compounds and toxic air pollutants that cause cancer. And, because methane is the primary ingredient of natural gas, failure to address venting, flaring, and leaks led to about $3.5 billion worth of wasted natural gas – 16 million metric tons of methane – in 2023 alone. Both large and independent producers have gone on record in support of federal methane regulation, and major oil and gas producing states including Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and New Mexico have already been implementing the standards.
In July, Administrator Zeldin announced that he would use the Interim Final Rule process to delay requirements for companies to comply with the methane standards for as long as 18 months – even though the standards had already been in place for more than a year, and even though EPA’s own fact sheet noted the delay would lead to more pollution: “The EPA estimates that the following emissions reductions will not occur from 2028-2038 as a result of the interim final rule: 3.8 million tons of methane, 960,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and 36,000 tons of toxic air pollutant.” EPA also offered no opportunity for public input until after the Interim Final Rule delay took effect, in violation of the law.
Thirteen health, environment and community groups – Environmental Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Air Council, Clean Air Task Force, Dakota Resource Council, Earthjustice, Earthworks, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Food & Water Watch, Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights (Fort Berthold POWER), GreenLatinos, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and Sierra Club – filed a lawsuit challenging that Interim Final rule. That lawsuit is still pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Then a week ago, late in the afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving, EPA announced its Final Rule, which also delays implementation of the methane protections by 18 months.
Yesterday, the same day the Final Rule was published in the Federal Register, the same groups filed another lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit challenging it.
Wendy Bloom, Senior Attorney, Environmental Law & Policy Center, said:
“The Trump EPA’s final methane emissions rule backslides to inaction on wasted energy and toxic emissions that the oil and gas industry has the tools to control. Communities across the Midwest — particularly those near drilling and processing sites in states like Michigan and North Dakota — will face unnecessary and continued exposure to harmful air pollutants and increased health risks. EPA’s new rule is unlawful and needlessly prioritizes oil and gas interests at the expense of the health, well-being, and quality of life of our communities.”