Connelly: Stop flouting the Clean Air Act or we'll sue, AGs tell Trump's EPA

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson: "In this case, the Trump administration's refusal to combat global climate change is not only dangerous, but unlawful." Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson: "In this case, the Trump administration's refusal to combat global climate change is not only dangerous, but unlawful." Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Connelly: Stop flouting the Clean Air Act or we'll sue, AGs tell Trump's EPA 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

The Trump administration will be sued if it does not immediately halt violating and flouting the Clean Air Act, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and 12 AG colleagues told EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in a letter today.

The attorneys general have acted in response to foot dragging over rules limiting emissions of methane and other pollutants by the oil and gas industry.

Pruitt did the bidding of Big Oil and the natural gas industry while Oklahoma attorney general.

A Clean Air Act provision requires that, once the Environmental Protection Agency sets a rule limiting pollution from a industrial plants in a given sector, it must set guidelines for limiting emissions.

The EPA, last year, adopted a rule limiting methane emissions from new and modified oil and gas extraction and pipeline facilities. The agency began developing the guidelines for limiting emissions at refineries and other facilities, as it is required to do so by law.

On March 2nd, with no explanation, Pruitt ordered the EPA to halt the process for establishing guidelines.

Ferguson feels the Trump administration is not only violating the law, but squelching an opportunity to limit greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere.

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"In this case, the Trump Administration's refusal to combat global climate change is not only dangerous, but unlawful," he said. "This rule will prevent the release of significant amounts of methane and other harmful pollutants, which cause real harm to Washingtonians."

The Evergreen State is home to gas pipelines as well as five oil refineries, one in Tacoma, two at Anacortes, and two more at Cherry Point north of Bellingham.

Joining Ferguson in the letter are attorneys general from New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The District of Columbia's AG signed the letter.

"Methane is a particularly powerful agent of climate change, pound-for-pound, methane warms the climate about 34 times more than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period," the AGs told Pruitt.

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"According to EPA, the oil and gas sector is the largest emitter of methane in the U.S., accounting for a third of total U.S. methane emissions. Oil and gas production, transmission and distribution results in massive leakage of methane to the atmosphere -- leakage that not only drives climate change, but also equates to lost revenue for producing states, and producers, transporters and distributors of natural gas."

New, restructured and modified natural gas facilities will account for little of the total methane emissions. But existing facilities will send 90 percent of the methane emissions into the atmosphere.

If the EPA implements its guidelines, as required under the Clean Air Act, it could cut methane emissions by 40 percent at an annual cost of less than a penny per thousand cubic feet of gas.

"EPA's withdrawal of the Final Methane ICR (rule) lacked any rational basis," the AGs told Pruitt.

Ferguson and his fellow AGs have already gone after the Trump administration on failure to release new energy efficiency standards for household and yard appliances.

They have also -- literally -- laid down the law.

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"My office will stand firmly in the way if Scott Pruitt and the Trump administration threaten to gut the progress we've made in protecting our environment and tackling the dire impacts of climate change," New York AG Eric Schneiderman said in a recent statement.

Ferguson, who played a key role in fighting Trump's travel ban, is playing a key role in the AG's resistance.

A number of Republican attorneys general have voiced the opposite view.

"I sincerely believe West Virginia will have a friend in Scott Pruit," the Mountaineer State's AG Morrisey said in a recent statement.

"Scott's principled approach will respect the law and reinforce the EPA's core mission to protect our air and water without unconstitutional and job killing overreach, which has brought tremendous harm to West Virginia during the last eight years."

But climate change is bringing tremendous harm to the nation and world. We have, former Vice President Al Gore said in Bellevue Tuesday, treated the Earth's atmosphere as an "open sewer."