Federal judges, handing a win to drillers in one of the nation’s oil and gas production hubs, have blocked implementation of an EPA rule that could force the industry to undertake a suite of new and costly cleanup measures.
In an order issued late last week, a two-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to the Utah Petroleum Association’s bid to stay the Biden-era rule published last December.
The rule, which denied an extension request, reclassified the northeast Utah region from “marginal” to “moderate” nonattainment with EPA’s latest ground-level ozone limit under the five-point sliding scale used to rank failing areas.
The downgrade would require larger pollution sources to adopt “reasonably available control technology” measures to curb emissions of smog-forming pollutants, while setting the stage for a more expensive downgrade to “serious” nonattainment, according to the association. Also requesting the stay was the state of Utah.
