WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge Wednesday to immediately enforce new restrictions on the release of potent methane emissions at oil and gas drilling operations on public land.
The ruling came at the behest of California and other states, which charged the administration is required by law to enforce the new rules intended to cut the release of 175,000 tons of the potent greenhouse gas annually, as well as reduce the emission of associated toxic pollutants.
The Interior Department had been delaying enforcement as it mapped out a strategy to rescind the new rules, which industry has complained are onerous. An earlier push by opponents of new methane restrictions to kill them in Congress fell short of the needed votes, amid a backlash from landowners affected by pollution from drilling and environmentalists.
The ruling was the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the Trump administration, as the courts find flaws in its plans for dismantling executive branch actions taken to confront climate change before President Donald Trump took office.
