The House has through June 13 to vote on House Concurrent Regulatory Review Resolution #1 to kill DEP’s final conventional Chapter 78 and unconventional (Marcellus Shale) Chapter 78a drilling regulations (assuming it does not add any additional session days, voting or non-voting).
If no action is taken, the regulations can be forwarded to the Office of Attorney General for review and then published as final in the PA Bulletin.
If the House adopts the resolution, it then moves to the Senate for action. Whether the Senate has whatever time the House has left on its 10 legislative session day or 30 calendar day deadline (whichever is longer) to act or whether the Senate starts over, we’ll have to wait and see.
As reported by PA Environment Digest, discussions were reportedly ongoing between House and Senate Republicans and other legislators and the Wolf Administration on whether a deal could be reached to avoid a vote on the Resolution.
The price of avoiding a vote to kill the entire package, however, could be killing the regulations in Chapter 78 applying to conventional drilling and making DEP start over or making other changes to the regulation, already approved by the Environmental Quality Board and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.
Ultimately, if the House and Senate go ahead and pass the resolution killing the drilling regulations, Gov. Wolf will have to decide whether he will use his veto again and whether that veto could be sustained in the Senate and House.
While the Environmental Quality Board overwhelmingly adopted the final drilling regulations by a 15 to 4 vote in February, Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) and Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne), Majority and Minority Chairs of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, and Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny), Majority Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, proposed 17 amendments to the regulations that were all voted down 5 or 6 to 13 or 14.
While the Environmental Quality Board overwhelmingly adopted the final drilling regulations by a 15 to 4 vote in February, Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) and Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne), Majority and Minority Chairs of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, and Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny), Majority Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, proposed 17 amendments to the regulations that were all voted down 5 or 6 to 13 or 14.
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Related Stories:
PA Environmental Council Urges Committee Not To Oppose DEP Final Drilling RegsEQB Overwhelmingly Approves Final Chapter 78, 78a Drilling Regulations
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