DEP Plans To Present A ‘Narrower Version’ Of Final Oil & Gas Methane Emission Reduction Reg. To EQB At June Meeting

On May 18, the Department of Environmental Protection said it will present a revised final oil and gas methane emission reduction regulation to the EQB in June that it hopes will address objections raised to the regulation that could have resulted in a disapproval of the regulation and delaying final adoption.

As a result of these concerns, DEP sent a letter pulling the regulation from the Independent Regulatory Review Commission’s May 19 meeting agenda to bring it back to the EQB.

Laura Legere of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported DEP was re-evaluating the final methane regulation over a 2016 law requiring separate regulations for conventional oil and gas operations.

Presently, the final methane regulation covers both unconventional shale gas wells and conventional oil and gas operators.  The regulation now requires all wells emitting over a certain threshold be  regulated.  (See March 2022 EQB meeting for a copy of the regulation.)

Republicans on the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee also sent a letter disapproving of the regulation largely based on the 2016 law.

DEP said delaying finalization of the regulation beyond a rapidly approaching federal deadline would also mean Pennsylvania could face sanctions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including loss of federal highway funds.

Brian Chalfont, Acting Director of DEP’s Policy Office, told the EQB May 18, “Our intent is to bring the reformulated rulemaking back to the EQB that is designed to avoid or minimize those sanctions in June.”

James Welty, a representative of the Marcellus Shale Coalition and a member of DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council on the EQB, said, “That would suggest that there's going to be changes to the final rulemaking, which would also suggest that changes to a rulemaking need to go back to go back through the process that would include public comment.”

Chalfont replied, “The changes that are being worked on currently are still within the scope of what was proposed and what was out for public comment, so we don't see that being an issue.  Our intent is to have it be kind of a  narrower version of what was proposed.”

These comments suggest DEP is planning to split the regulation into separate packages covering unconventional and conventional oil and gas operations.

In a related action, Legere also reported three conventional oil and gas industry groups filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court on May 4 to block the  final methane regulation from going into effect citing the same 2016 law (Act 52) they say requires conventional oil and gas wells to be regulated separately from unconventional shale gas wells.

DEP had previously said it didn’t believe Act 52 applied to the methane regulation because it was being promulgated under the state Air Pollution Control Act not statutory requirements under Title 58 (Oil & Gas) referenced repeatedly in Act 52 and during debate on the legislation as it was considered in the General Assembly.

Commonwealth Court had an initial hearing on the lawsuit on May 10.

The next meeting of the EQB will be on June 14 (new date).  All EQB meetings through November have been rescheduled to the second, rather than third, Tuesday of each month.

For more information and available handouts, visit the Environmental Quality Board webpage.  Questions should be directed to Laura Griffin, Regulatory Coordinator,  laurgriffi@pa.gov,  717-772-3277.

Related Articles: 

-- Guest Essay: PA's Low-Producing Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Are Leaking Too Much Methane, The Industry Needs To Take Care Of Its Own Trash

-- Post-Gazette: DEP Evaluating Whether To Resubmit Oil & Gas Methane Rule To EQB To Address Concerns About A Separate Conventional Oil & Gas Rule

-- Environmental Quality Board Approves Final Rule Reducing VOC/Methane Emissions From Oil & Gas Operations; Conventional Drillers Oppose

[Posted: May 18, 2022]  PA Environment Digest