On December 3, Laura Legere from the Post-Gazette reported the Department of Environmental Protection is starting the development of new regulations setting environmental and waste disposal standards for conventional oil and gas well drilling after Gov. Wolf’s veto of Senate Bill 790 (Scarnati-R-Jefferson) last week .

Senate Bill 790 would have significantly reduced requirements for protecting the environment from conventional-- as opposed to shale gas drilling-- if it had become law, according to Gov. Wolf and groups opposed to the bill.  Read more here

In his veto message, Gov. Wolf said, in part-- “The Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly offered to engage collaboratively with the General Assembly and the regulated community to develop requirements specifically tailored to the conventional oil and gas industry’s operations.

“Unfortunately, instead of seeing that collaborative approach through, this legislation was pursued, which rolls back protections for safe drinking water, weakens protections of public resources, allows more spills to go unreported, and avoids erosion and sediment control permitting requirements.

“This legislation poses an unacceptable risk to the environment and the public health and safety of our citizens.

“At a time when the conventional industry is still incurring violations at three to four times the rate of the unconventional [shale gas] industry, this legislation is completely unacceptable.” Read more here.

Republican legislation signed into law by Gov. Wolf in 2016 killed DEP’s first attempt at updating environmental protection standards for conventional drilling, but in a deal, allowed regulations updating standards for unconventional-- shale gas drilling-- to go through.  Read more here.

From 2016 through today, DEP has worked with the PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Council on the conventional regulations to come up with an acceptable draft.

The Council is housed at the Department of Community and Economic Development and was given the responsibility to advise DEP on the conventional regulations.

Efforts to come up with legislation and/or regulations better regulating the conventional drilling industry and agreed to by both industry and DEP have not yet been successful.  Read more here.

Regulation Drafts Available

On August 6, 2020, DEP gave draft conventional oil and gas regulations to the PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Council to restart the development process.  Read more here.

The Council passed a motion to move ahead with reviewing the draft conventional regulations comparing them to the existing regulations and to a list of regulatory concepts discussed with the Council in 2017.  Read more here.

On September 17, 2020, DEP gave the same draft conventional regulations to the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board as well.

The Board indicated they would like to be involved in the review process.

Click Here for the draft conventional drilling environmental standards.

Click Here for the draft conventional drilling waste management standards

To compare the requirements with the 2016 version killed by the legislation, Click Here.

DEP told the advisory boards they are committed to an open and transparent process and want to work collaboratively with them to develop the rulemaking.

DEP told the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board in September they do not have a specific date in mind to advance the rulemaking to the Environmental Quality Board for consideration.  Read more here.

Discussions on the details of the draft regulations are not expected to really start until some time next year.

The next meeting of the DEP Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board is December 16.  Read more here.

The next meeting of the PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Council is tentatively set for April, but that schedule could be changed.

NewsClips:

DEP Advancing New Rules For Conventional Oil Wells After Veto Of Industry Backed Bill

Reid Frazier: Families, Advocates Criticize PA’s Natural Gas Drilling- Related Fracking Health Studies In Southwest PA

Related Articles:

-- DEP Oil & Gas Advisory Board To Hear Update On Permit Fees v. Expenses; Oil & Gas Health Studies; Natural Gas Storage Fields; Reg. Update Dec. 16

-- Gov. Wolf Vetoes Republican Bill Rolling Back Environmental Protection Standards For Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling

-- DEP Reports Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Had Nearly Twice The Violations Of Shale Gas Wells; DEP To Develop New Conventional Drilling Regs

-- DEP: Conventional Oil & Gas Well Violations More Than Triple Between 2015-2017

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[Posted: December 5, 2020]

12/7/2020