After denying a slew of applications earlier this month asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a portion of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new oil and gas emissions rule, the high court granted certiorari to a pair of consolidated cases, Oklahoma v. EPA and PacifiCorp v. EPA.
The order granting review noted one hour has been allotted for oral argument and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. took no part in the consideration or decision.
The agency’s new emissions rule is intended “to reduce emissions of [greenhouse gases] and other harmful air pollutants from the Crude Oil and Natural Gas source category.”
The portion of the rule in question strengthens and expands the emission standards related to methane for existing facilities that started construction, reconstruction or modification on or before Nov. 15, 2021. The section of the new rule also establishes implementation requirements for states to limit methane pollution at the facilities it designates. But states can still take some factors into account when applying a standard to a particular source under the rule.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June overruled its 40-year-old Chevron deference doctrine, allowing courts to directly determine if an agency’s rulemaking is in line with its statutory authority if a statute is ambiguous.