Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Democrats On House Environmental Committee Report Out Bill To Help Prevent The Routine Abandonment Of 561 Conventional Oil/Gas Wells A Year

On May 23, Democrats on the
House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted to report out House Bill 962 (Vitali-D-Delaware) to restore DEP’s authority to review conventional oil and gas well plugging bonding amounts to help prevent the routine abandonment of 561 conventional oil and gas wells a year.

The bill, however, continues the exemption from any well plugging bonds for pre-April 1985 conventional oil and gas wells.

The Republicans on the Committee voted against the bill.

House Bill 962 was amended to restore the oil and gas well plugging bonding amounts before a law passed in 2022 taking away DEP’s authority to review the conventional well plugging bonding amounts.

The amendment also requires DEP to do a study to make recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly on the cost and trends in well abandonments, evaluate the effectiveness of tools to prevent new abandonments and make recommendations on financial assurance measures for plugging wells drilled before April 1985.

The amendment was supported by DEP and the Sierra Club and adopted by a party-line vote in the Committee-- Democrats supporting.

Majority Chairman Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) said, "The amendment itself actually makes this bill much more amenable to the conventional drilling industry, and the reason we've done that was for practical considerations to increase the profit." 

"The reason we’ve done that was for practical considerations to increase the probabilities of being passed,” Rep. Vitali said

He said the amendment "makes clear that we are not requiring bonding for wells drilled prior to April 1985, it brings back the $2,500 bonding amount for conventional wells and it requires a study by the DEP for the issue of orphaned and abandoned wells."

Minority Chairman Martin Causer (R-McKean) remarked, "First, I'll say that I think the bill is completely unnecessary. I will concede that this amendment makes a bad bill somewhat better." 

He said the legislation's requirement to have DEP conduct a study and stated that "based on some of the studies that have come from DEP in the past, it's very obvious that they're biased against the conventional industry and treat the conventional industry very unfairly."

The Committee also--

-- Reported Out Unanimously- Chesapeake Bay Week: House Resolution 104 (Sturla-D- Lancaster/Benninghoff-R-Mifflin) designating June 4 to 10 Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week. 

--  No Action - Streambank Fencing: House Bill 677 (Sturla-D- Lancaster) amending the Clean Streams Law to authorize stream bank fencing as a Best Management Practice to keep livestock out of streams.  

House Bill 962 was Tabled, as per usual procedure.  House Resolution 104 on the House Calendar for action.

Click Here to watch a video of the Committee meeting.

More Background On Plugging

As part of the July 2022 budget settlement, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Wolf signed into law legislation that took away the authority of DEP to review the adequacy of conventional oil and gas well plugging bonding amounts for 10 years.  Read more here.

The legislation was designed to head off a rulemaking petition from the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council and other groups accepted for study by the Environmental Quality Board in November 2021 to increase the well plugging bonding amounts for both conventional oil and gas and unconventional shale gas drillers to what it now costs taxpayers to plug a well when operators walk away from their obligations.  Read more here.

The Post-Gazette calculated DEP has about $15 per well on hand in well plugging bonds to plug all the active conventional wells-- somewhere over 90,545.

DEP reported in December that between 2017 and 2021, conventional operators abandoned without plugging 2,246 wells-- 561 a year, on average.   Read more here.

Under the new federally-funded conventional well plugging program, Pennsylvania is set to receive nearly $400 million over the next 15 years.   DEP said it would plug about 249 wells the first year.  Read more here.

You can do the math, we’ll never catch up, unless changes are made in the practices used by conventional oil and gas operators.

On April 24, the Environmental Defense Fund announced the results of a new study that found 55,000 oil and gas wells owned by operators in Pennsylvania are at high risk of becoming abandoned leaving state taxpayers holding the bag for $3.7 billion in well plugging and cleanup costs.  Read more here.

The overwhelming majority of these wells are conventional oil and gas wells.

“There's all the incentive in the world for those operators to walk away,” said Adam Peltz, EDF Senior Attorney for Energy Transition.  “If they're bankruptcy-proof, then the state can't get them and they save all the money unplugging.”

The study also found another 51,000 wells owned by solvent operators are at risk of being transferred to new financially unhealthy companies because the net present value of the wells is negative.  The state taxpayer liability for these wells is an estimated $3.5 billion.

“Solvent operators are not going to orphan [abandon] the wells because they're solvent. And if you abandon a well and you're solvent, someone's going to come get you,” said Peltz.  “But what those operators are incentivized to do is transfer the wells down the value chain until they get to a low solvency entity that might then go bankrupt.”

Only 11,500 wells were determined to be of no risk of being abandoned in Pennsylvania, according to the EDF study.  

There are a total of 117,500 active or idle [inactive] conventional and unconventional oil and gas wells in the state, according to EDF.

The study was based on a review of the net present value of the wells and the relative insolvency and fiscal health of the operators.  Read more here.

Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) serves as Majority Chair of the House Environmental Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-7647 or sending email to: gvitali@pahouse.net. Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5075 or by sending email to: mcauser@pahousegop.com.

Another Meeting:

-- June 5-- Tentative. House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing on House Bill 652 (Bullock-D-Philadelphia) on environmental justice and permitting. LTBA

NewsClips:

-- Spotlight PA: PA Limited A Board’s Power To Regulate Oil & Gas Wells, Democrats Want To Restore It

-- The Daily Item:  Conventional Well Plugging Bill Amended To Give It Better Shot At Passing Through House - Rep. Vitali

-- Citizens Voice Editorial: Renew Bonds To Close, Cleanup Conventional Oil, Gas Wells  [PaEN]

Related Articles - Bonding:

-- EDF: Pennsylvania Has 55,000 Oil/Gas Wells At High Risk Of Being Abandoned; 51,000 Wells At Risk Of Being Transferred To Low Solvency Owners; Current Conventional Well Owners Abandon 561 Wells A Year, On Average [PaEN]

-- House Hearing: Let’s Work Together To Make Conventional Oil & Gas Industry Practices Cleaner, Respect Property Rights, Protect Taxpayers And Prevent New Abandoned Wells  [PaEN]

-- Guest Essay: Conventional vs Unconventional Oil & Gas Wells - Not As Different As You Might Think  [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Struggle To Plug Tatonka Oil Co. LLC’s Nancy 13 Conventional Well Leaking Gas, Production Wastewater Since 2018; Citizen Complaint Finds ‘Bubbling’ Gas Well  [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 20 to 26; DEP Issues More NOVs For Conventional Well Abandonments  [PaEN]  

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - May 27   [PaEN] 

-- DEP Posts 63 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In May 27 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Compliance Reports

-- Feature: 60 Years Of Fracking, 20 Years Of Shale Gas: Pennsylvania’s Oil & Gas Industrial Infrastructure Is Hiding In Plain Sight [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Failed To File Annual Production/Waste Generation Reports For 61,655 Wells; Attorney General Continues Investigation Of Road Dumping Wastewater  [PaEN]

-- DEP Issued 754 Notices Of Violation For Defective Oil & Gas Well Casing, Cementing, The Fundamental Protection Needed To Prevent Gas Migration, Groundwater & Air Contamination, Explosions  [PaEN]

-- DEP Report Finds: Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Routinely Abandon Wells; Fail To Report How Millions Of Gallons Of Waste Is Disposed; And Non-Compliance Is An ‘Acceptable Norm’  [PaEN]

-- DEP 2021 Oil & Gas Program Annual Report Shows Conventional Oil & Gas Operators Received A Record 610 Notices Of Violation For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industry Has Record Year: Cost, Criminal Convictions Up; $3.1 Million In Penalties Collected; Record Number Of Violations Issued; Major Compliance Issues Uncovered; Evidence Of Health Impacts Mounts  [PaEN] 

Related Article This Week:

-- Democrats On House Environmental Committee Report Out Bill To Help Prevent The Routine Abandonment Of 561 Conventional Oil/Gas Wells A Year  [PaEN]

-- Citizens Voice Editorial: Renew Bonds To Close, Cleanup Conventional Oil, Gas Wells  [PaEN]

-- Republican Herald Editorial: Hold Conventional Oil/Gas Industry Responsible For Capping Wells

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Meets June 15 On Water Withdrawal Projects, Including 12 Related To Shale Natural Gas Drilling  [PaEN]

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Approved 36 Shale Gas Well Drilling Pad Water Use Permits In Bradford, Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wyoming Counties  [PaEN] 

-- DEP Signs Consent Order Including $10 Million In Penalties, Local Payments With Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County To Resolve Air Quality Violations; Plant To Restart May 24  [PaEN]

-- Things Are Different In The House: Hearing On Hydrogen Hubs Became ‘Democracy’ vs. ‘Open Mic Night’  [PaEN] 

-- Observer-Reporter Editorial: Court Drills Down On Environment - Environmental Quality A Right Not A Luxury [The Heart Of The Unconventional Shale Gas Drilling Industry]  [PaEN]  

-- Warren Times Editorial: Keeping A Natural Lifeline Pure With Environmental Rights Amendment - Environmental Quality A Right Not A Luxury [The Heart Of The Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling Industry]  [PaEN] 

-- Citizens Voice Editorial: PA Supreme Court Reaffirms Environmental Quality Is A Right Not A Luxury In Shale Gas Drilling Ruling   [PaEN]

[Posted: May 23, 2023]  PA Environment Digest

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