Thirteen states including Kansas are asking a federal appeals court to review the Environmental Protection Agency's recent regulations on the oil and gas industry.
The EPA made a final ruling on emission standards affecting new, reconstructed and modified oil and gas operations. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked for judicial review of one of the three new rules, specifically the rule that relates to regulating emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.
Schmidt says that the EPA skipped a requirement to do an endangerment finding about the effects of methane. The EPA did such a finding in advance of emission regulations regarding vehicles.
"This is yet another example of the cascade of unnecessary and unauthorized regulations pouring out of federal agencies in these final months of the Obama Administration,” Schmidt said in a news release.
Regulations on salt water injections in Kansas were in some places broadened and in others softened this week in response to increased seismic activity due to wastewater disposal used in fracking operations. A 4.0 magnitude earthquake was measured in Helena, Oklahoma, on Friday.
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Aileen LeBlanc is news director at KMUW. Follow her on Twitter @Aileen_LeBlanc.
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