WASHINGTON – Once again, an effort to roll back the commonsense rule that limits harmful methane waste from oil and gas operations on public lands has been found to be improper and not based on the evidence. Late Thursday, a federal district judge rejected the administration’s move to suspend implementation of the Bureau of Land Management rule.

Collin O’Mara, the National Wildlife Federation’s president and CEO, said today:

“The ruling is a victory for wildlife, our shared natural treasures, and people who enjoy our public lands. The BLM methane rule reduces the wasting of natural gas resources on taxpayer-owned public lands, protects people and wildlife from climate-disrupting pollution and ensures Americans get a fair return for our nonrenewable public resources. This ruling is also a vindication for the principle that decisions affecting our public lands and natural resources must be made based on the law, the facts and sound science, not special interests.

“Reducing methane pollution is a popular and sensible measure the National Wildlife Federation will continue to work hard to defend. We have won in the court of public opinion. We have won on the Senate floor. For the third time, we have won in the court room. And we will defeat any future efforts, should the administration plod ahead with yet another ill-conceived attempt to eviscerate this commonsense rule.”

The National Wildlife Federation joined the lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to suspend implementation of the methane rule. This is the second time the administration has tried to suspend the rule. The first attempt was overturned by a court last summer. The administration is now proposing a measure that would seek to effectively gut the standard that would require methane waste from oil and gas operations on public lands to be reduced.

Read more about NWF’s most recent methane report.