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Santa Fe, NM—WildEarth Guardians this week called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block the New Mexico Environment Department’s approval of an air pollution permit allowing Exxon subsidiary, XTO Energy, to operate a massive oil and gas processing facility.

“Sadly, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Environment Department is giving Exxon and the oil and gas industry a free pass to pollute,” said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians.  “We need the EPA to put an end to this lawlessness and the Environment Department’s abject lack of meaningful action for clean air and public health.”

In a legal petition filed late yesterday with the EPA, Guardians requested the agency object to the approval of a permit for XTO’s Wildcat Compressor Station, a large source of toxic emissions located in the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico.  Under the Clean Air Act, polluters like XTO can only operate large sources of air pollution in accordance with a legally adequate permit.

Highlighting major legal deficiencies in the permit drafted by the New Mexico Environment Department, WildEarth Guardians called on the EPA to block the approval.

The petition comes on the heels of increased scrutiny and concern over the legality of air pollution permitting for the oil and gas industry by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Environment Department.

Already, the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico is in the midst of a smog crisis because of air pollution from unchecked oil and gas extraction. In spite of this, the New Mexico Environment Department continues to approve permits allowing the industry to increase pollution in the region.

Last fall, the EPA objected to the approval of air pollution permits for two other oil and gas facilities in southeast New Mexico’s Permian Basin.  The agency found the New Mexico Environment Department illegally ignored the air quality and public health impacts of approving the permits, as well as included unlawful loopholes.

The EPA’s ruling implicates all permits approved by the New Mexico Environment Department, prompting WildEarth Guardians to call for a halt to new oil and gas air pollution permitting.

This week’s petition over XTO’s Wildcat Compressor Station targets the same legal deficiencies identified by the EPA.

By law, companies can’t operate sources of air pollution without legally adequate permits.  If Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Environment Department continues to approve illegal permits, the EPA will be forced to take over permitting and companies like XTO will face the prospect of permits being denied, effectively shutting down their pollution sources.

WildEarth Guardians has already notified the EPA of its intent to sue the agency for not taking over the air pollution permits objected to last fall.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has 60 days to grant WildEarth Guardians’ petition over XTO’s permit.