Posted on 12/12/2012 2:48:40 AM PST by raybbr
Seven Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, including Connecticut, announced plans Tuesday to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying it is violating the Clean Air Act by failing to address methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, which has boomed in states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a news release Tuesday that the EPA is violating the Clean Air Act by failing to address the emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the oil and gas industry is the largest source of emissions in this country. Other major sources come from landfills and livestock.
The EPA said in an email that it plans to review and respond to the notice from the states.
Howard Feldman, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, said the lawsuit “makes no sense” since the EPA passed rules on oil and gas emissions earlier this year, and many companies have already started installing new equipment to limit methane leaks and other pollution. Those rules take effect in 2015.
Peter ZalZal, a staff attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the group thinks the recent EPA rules are “a good first step,” but that more can be done to target methane emissions directly.
“We think that controlling and reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is critical,” ZalZal said.
Schneiderman said that the coalition of states “can’t continue to ignore the evidence of climate change or the catastrophic threat that unabated greenhouse gas pollution poses to our families, our communities and our economy.”
He said Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont joined in sending a required 60-day notice of intent to sue to EPA.
(Excerpt) Read more at nhregister.com ...
Dear God, please make it stop.
Mr. niteowl77
This is PS, pseudo science. Next they will be going after cow farts and they have been doing that already.. The assertion that methane discharge from drilling is causing global warming should be proven by solid science .
Need to find something that’s regulated that these states emit - and sue the EPA for not enforcing that. See how fast they shut up.
The gay marriage friendly states versus the producer states and even worse those are white racists (sarcasm) who produce that fracked gas and oil
ZalZal? Really? ZalZal?
No, they’ll just countersue and hire their buddies at private law firms with taxpayer money to prosecute the suit. This is all about legal fees.
Nope.
They are so communist, they want to hurt their citizens and their economy, all in the name of communism. Green crap is ONLY meant to promote communism.
This is like a bushel basket of crabs. No one is allowed to climb out of liberal misery. All must be dragged back into energy poverty.
GD Yankee Commies, full of Marxist Racist...time to succeed from this abortion of a nation!
See... Liberalism really is a mental disorder! As if we really needed another example.
Actually, they can’t really countersue. Remember, these other states would be suing the EPA, not those states directly.
At this point what we need to do is gridlock everything for at least the next 4-12 years.
God has no power to stop the Yankees. They need to be purged from the Union. The only to deal with them is to get rid of them
At this point what we need to do is gridlock everything for at least the next 4-12 years.
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We need a platoon of conservative lawyers to sue on every front to shut down the US economy and force as much gov’t sanctioned pain as possible on the NE states and California. They created the laws , we sue for enforcement.
I doubt much methane is being lost Tothe atmosphere. Consol Energy Found methane from their mines generates more money than coal. They no longer vent it off their mines. These aholes are just jealous.
ZalZal? Really? ZalZal? ....You remember his sister? Gabor?
Bingo. Use the classic liberal tool against them until even they decry its use. Demand enforcement against all states not just the conservative ones as they are now - make their allied interests scream with pain.
I suppose this is really about fracking rather than traditional natural gas drilling.
Whats to be done? We can’t *not* regulate and we shouldn’t *over* regulate or let regulation become a political tool ripe for abuse.
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