On March 28, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” with the stated policy of “promot[ing] clean and safe development” of domestic energy resources and ensuring an affordable and reliable supply of electricity, while “avoiding regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth, and prevent job creation.” Although the Executive Order does not itself withdraw any rules issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or other agencies, it clearly reflects President Trump’s intent to drastically change course from the Obama administration’s stance on climate change and to seek reducing environmental regulation of, among other sources of greenhouse gases, coal-fired power plants and oil and natural gas operations.
For more information, read our Administrative Watch.
Effective March 2, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn the information collection request (ICR) entitled, “Information Collection Effort for Oil and Gas Facilities.” EPA issued the final ICR in November 2016, requiring more than 15,000 owners and operators in the oil and natural gas industry to submit information that would support a future EPA rulemaking to reduce methane emissions from existing sources. The ICR required companies to provide a significant amount of information in two phases, known as the Part 1 Operator Survey and Part 2 Facility Survey. EPA has withdrawn both parts of the ICR, which means that owners and operators who received a letter directing them to complete an ICR survey are no longer required to respond.
According to an official withdrawal notice that is expected to be published in the Federal Register on March 7, 2017, “[t]he withdrawal is occurring because EPA would like to assess the need for the information that the agency was collecting through these requests, and reduce burdens on businesses while the Agency assesses such need.” The notice also indicates that EPA acted in response to a letter from a group of states expressing concern for burdens on businesses.
On February 23, 2017, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) announced an extension of the public comment period regarding recently proposed draft general air permits for the oil and natural gas industry. Comments are now due by June 5, 2017. PADEP has proposed to issue a new general permit known as GP-5A for unconventional natural gas well site operations and remote pigging stations, as well as revise the existing general permit known as GP-5 for natural gas compression and/or processing facilities. PADEP’s proposal would also revise the Air Quality Permit Exemptions list. Refer to our Administrative Watch for more information. A formal notice regarding the comment deadline extension was also published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin dated February 25, 2017.
On April 27, 2016, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that it has initiated an “unprecedented expansion” of the Commonwealth’s particulate matter air monitoring network to include additional monitors in areas near natural gas development. The expansion project will include 10 additional DEP monitoring stations and has a target completion date of fall 2017.
DEP plans to implement the expansion project in three stages, with one monitoring station added to each of 10 counties. DEP completed Phase 1 earlier this year with the addition of air monitoring stations in Towanda Township, Bradford County, and Holbrook Township, Greene County. The Department expects to complete Phase 2 by the end of 2016 by adding monitoring stations in Fayette, Indiana, Lycoming, Susquehanna, and Wyoming Counties. Phase 3 has a target completion date of fall 2017 and will include air monitoring stations in Clarion, Jefferson, and McKean Counties.
Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the next step in its strategy for reducing methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector: regulating emissions from existing sources. According to EPA’s fact sheet, the agency will issue an Information Collection Request (ICR) “to require companies operating existing oil and gas sources to provide information to assist in the development of comprehensive regulations to reduce methane emissions.” EPA plans to reach out to stakeholders about the ICR process in the next few weeks and begin the formal ICR process next month. A draft ICR will be released for public comment.
On January 19, 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a sweeping new regulatory strategy for reducing methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations in the Commonwealth. Methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, is considered by federal and state agencies to be a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change. Governor Wolf stated that Pennsylvania, as the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas, is “uniquely positioned to be a national leader in addressing climate change.”
The Pennsylvania methane reduction strategy is expected to result in significant changes to the air permitting and regulatory regime that currently applies to oil and natural gas industry sources. For more information, read our Administrative Watch.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is revising important definitions in the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) rule for the oil and gas sector, NSPS Subpart OOOO, in response to stakeholder petitions. In a final rule published today, EPA is revising the definition of “low pressure gas well”, in order to identify the wells that cannot implement a reduced emission completion (otherwise known as REC or “green completion”) because of a lack of necessary reservoir pressure. EPA is also revising the definition of “storage vessel” to remove references to “connected in parallel” and “installed in parallel”, in order to clarify which storage vessels are subject to NSPS Subpart OOOO. The revisions are effective immediately.
Earlier this week, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of a natural gas operator in a closely-watched case involving air aggregation issues. In 2011, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) filed suit alleging that Ultra Resources, Inc. (Ultra) constructed a major source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) without the appropriate New Source Review (NSR) permit. The case involved eight compressor stations in Tioga and Potter counties for which Ultra had obtained separate authorizations from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to use the General Plan Approval/General Operating Permit known as “GP-5”. PennFuture viewed the compressor stations as functionally interrelated, operating in concert with a metering station as a single facility with potential NOx emissions in excess of the NSR major source threshold, thereby subjecting Ultra to heightened permitting requirements.
In granting Ultra’s motion for summary judgment, the District Court concluded that Ultra’s compressor stations did not constitute a single facility. The regulatory definition of a single facility requires, in relevant part, that sources be “located on one or more contiguous or adjacent properties” in order to be aggregated into a single facility. The central issue in this case was whether Ultra’s compressor stations are on “adjacent” properties.
The District Court found that Ultra’s compressor stations are not on “adjacent” properties under either the distance-based, plain meaning approach advocated by Ultra, or the functional relationship theory put forth by PennFuture. According to the District Court, the stipulated facts showed that the compressor stations are not “sufficiently close to, or near enough, each other to be considered adjacent.” Also, with respect to functional relationship, the District Court found no unique facts suggesting that Ultra’s emission sources were “unusual or outside of the normal oil and gas configurations and arrangements contemplated by [DEP].”
Although the District Court concluded that “the plain meaning of ‘contiguous’ and ‘adjacent’ should control a determination of whether two or more facilities should be aggregated,” it specifically “decline[d] to hold that functional interrelatedness can never lead to, or contribute to, a finding of contiguousness or adjacency.” Read our Administrative Watch for additional information regarding the District Court decision in Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future v. Ultra Resources, Inc.
On December 19, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized amendments to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry, just a few days in advance of a key regulatory deadline. Under NSPS Subpart OOOO, each well completion operation with hydraulic fracturing begun on or after January 1, 2015 must comply with so-called “green completion” or reduced emission completion requirements. In the latest revisions to Subpart OOOO, which have not yet been published in the Federal Register, EPA provides additional detail on how gas and liquids are to be handled during well completion operations. EPA also addresses a number of other issues, including storage tank standards, in response to petitions received from stakeholders since Subpart OOOO was first promulgated in 2012. Additional changes to Subpart OOOO may be forthcoming. In a fact sheet related to the revisions, EPA indicates that this rulemaking responds to just “some” of the issues raised by petitioners, and that the “agency is continuing to evaluate other issues raised in the petitions.”
Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published proposed amendments to federal air regulations at 40 C.F.R. 60, Subpart OOOO (Standards of Performance for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production, Transmission and Distribution). Subpart OOOO was first promulgated in 2012 and later revised in 2013. In response to petitions for administrative reconsideration, USEPA is now proposing additional changes to Subpart OOOO and requesting public comment on a limited set of issues, including the management of flowback gases and liquids associated with well completions. Comments are due on August 18, 2014 (or September 2, 2014, if a public hearing is requested).
Proposed regulatory amendments published on April 19, 2014 are likely to affect hundreds of facilities in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) has estimated that 141 sources will need to install additional pollution control equipment under the proposal. Read our full Administrative Watch to learn more.