Judge Skavdahl Doth Protest Too Much — And Wrongly Vacates BLM's Methane Rule

Last week, Judge Scott Skavdahl vacated BLM's 2016 methane Waste Prevention Rule.  The Judge spends 10 pages documenting the "loopty-loops" of the litigation surrounding the 2016 Rule and the Trump administration's efforts to rescind the rule.  Here, I'm with him.  It's difficult to review the tangled process of judicial review of this rule without being embarrassed for our judicial system.

Judge Skavdahl then spend 47 pages on the merits.  Here, however, if I may continue Judge Skavdahl's metaphor, I think that he went seriously off the rails – a dangerous outcome on a roller coaster.  I'll largely stand by my analysis of this issue in reviewing Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers's decision vacating the Trump rule rescinding the Waste Prevention Rule.  As I said then, "venting or flaring gas into the air, damaging the air without creating any benefits, has to fit within the definition of waste."