Attorneys general fight methane rule delay

N.M., Calif. officials say Trump administration directive is illegal

The attorneys general of New Mexico and California jointly filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Department of the Interior, saying the agency, under the Trump administration, has illegally postponed requirements for companies to comply with methane regulations enacted under the Obama administration.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of complaints filed by states, environmental advocates and industry groups over the fairness and legality of two federal methane rules finalized in 2016 and meant to reduce oil and gas companies’ emissions of methane, a component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas known to exacerbate the effects of climate change.

The suit, filed by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, is in response to the Interior Department’s announcement in early June that oil and gas companies would not have to comply with federal requirements to monitor and reduce the amount of methane released in operations on lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management over the next two years.

The suit comes as a federal court ruled in a similar case earlier this week that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to stall implementation of its methane rule was unlawful.

The BLM’s methane rule, coupled with new regulations by the EPA, were seen as key components of former President Barack Obama’s efforts to fulfill the United States’ commitment to lower its greenhouse gas emissions significantly over the coming decades as part of an international climate accord.

But a number of oil and gas industry groups and several Western states sued the agencies, saying they had overreached their authority in the rule-making process and created

are still looking to downsize. The share of the market for those units is small in Santa Fe, but closed sales during the quarter increased 25 percent from a year ago, to 116.

While the number of new listings in the Santa Fe region has declined recently, the total inventory of homes for sale in the Santa Fe market stands at 1,711. That is up slightly from the end of March but about where it was 12 months ago.

Alan Ball, the qualifying broker at Keller Williams Santa Fe, said the market is balanced in most price ranges.

“Overall the market is somewhat balanced, with the usual strong and weak pockets. One who wishes to sell a home should find enough of a pool of buyers to make a deal,” he wrote in a recent blog posting about Santa Fe home sales. “Prospects who are considering our area will have a reasonable amount of inventory to shop.”

But there is one sign that less inventory might be having some impact. The count of properties for which contracts have been accepted, pending sales, dropped 25 percent in the second quarter, to 560 from 753.

If that trend continues, it would dampen sales for the remainder of the year.