Infrastructure And Energy Projects On A Rulemaking Rollercoaster Ride

The Bureau of Land Management "simply engineered a process to ensure a preordained conclusion," declared District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers in an opinion striking down the Trump administration's rescission of the Obama-era Waste Prevention Rule, aiming to reduce emissions from oil and gas production on BLM lands.

In resolving a legal battle between California, New Mexico, and environmental groups on the one hand, and Wyoming, oil and gas organizations, and the federal government on the other, the judge found that BLM failed to adequately consider public health impacts, especially for tribes, and underestimated climate consequences by improperly relying on a purely domestic metric for measuring the social cost of carbon.