This editorial first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 17, 2022-- 

Republican state legislators are poised to cost Pennsylvania billions of dollars in federal highway funding at the behest of the oil and gas industry.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a collection of rules for emissions from oil and gas drilling sites that states must adopt, or else they will lose billions of possible dollars in federal highway funds.

Pennsylvania is years behind schedule, and has a final deadline of Dec. 16, 2022.

It may be a kind of blackmail, but it’s effective — and it’s the law. It doesn’t matter what you think of the EPA’s rules: The way the regulations are set up, when the EPA says “jump,” Pennsylvania asks how high.

Unless you’re Daryl Metcalfe, the retiring Republican state legislator from Cranberry Township who has distinguished himself as one of Harrisburg’s most right-wing, and pugilistic, characters.

A bosom friend of the oil and gas industry, Mr. Metcalfe chairs the State House’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, doing its job, proposed a set of clean air regulations that would comply with the EPA’s rules and apply to both conventional oil and gas and shale gas extraction.

But that regulation has to be rubber stamped by Mr. Metcalfe’s committee, which has objected, arguing that a 2016 state law requires that conventional and shale resources be regulated separately.

In response, on Tuesday the state’s Environmental Quality Board passed satisfactory regulations on the shale part of the industry.

Now the question is: Can the DEP and EQB break out the conventional regulations from the combined rule and vote on them in short order? Or must they begin the rulemaking process again, from the very beginning, which would take at least two years?

Pennsylvania doesn’t have two years, but Mr. Metcalfe’s committee wants to require it.

The party of small and efficient government is intentionally gumming up the work of state authorities.

And for no reason.

The already-written regulation does not need to be reworked. Whatever game the Republican legislators think they’re playing, it’s a game that will only hurt Pennsylvania.

They’re risking taxpayer dollars that should belong to Pennsylvania to play it.

If the GOP wants to challenge the EPA’s rules and powers, they should do so through the proper channels: through filing challenges in the courts and winning control of the executive branch.

Playing tough with the feds wastes time and money. It will make a difference in the highways we drive on, especially how safe they are.

Worse, in a time when Americans rightly worry about their democracy, the Republicans’ stunt contributes to the public’s sense that government today is nothing more than a game for insiders, rather than grown-up work performed by serious men and women for the good of the people of Pennsylvania.

(Photo: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

Related Articles This Week:

-- Oil & Natural Gas Facility Health Impacts Assessment Bill Introduced In The House

-- Penn State Beaver Seeking Volunteers For June 23 Focus Group On Energy Development, Groundwater Quality & Public Health In Western PA 

-- Who’s Protecting Taxpayers?  House To Take Up Bill Exempting Conventional Oil & Gas Wells From Plugging Bonds Sticking Taxpayers With $5.1 Billion In Cleanup Liability 

-- EQB Adopts Part I Of Reg. Reducing Oil & Gas VOC/Methane Emissions; 80% Of Methane Emissions Come From Conventional Oil & Gas Facilities; IRRC Considers July 21 [PaEN]

-- PUC Distributes $234 Million In 2021 Revenue From Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee; Represents Lowest Effective Tax Rate On Natural Gas Companies On Record - IFO

-- PA Dept. Of Agriculture Temporarily Suspends Requirement For 2% Biodiesel For Out-Of-State Fuel Sold In PA In Response To Rolling Outages Of Diesel Fuel 

NewsClips:

-- Inquirer - Andrew Maykuth: A Proposed LNG Natural Gas Plan In Chester Would Be Gigantic And Hardly Anyone Knows About It

-- WHYY: Could Delaware County Get A Major LNG Natural Gas Plant, How Will It Clash With Environmental Justice Goals In Chester 

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: U.S./PA Natural Gas Exports Bind America To The World [And Spiking World Prices]

-- Scranton Times Editorial: Process LNG Natural Gas Where It’s Shipped Not Where It’s Taken Out Of The Ground

-- Post-Gazette - Laura Legere: DEP Splits Long-Stalled Oil & Gas Air Pollution Rule; Rule Loses Roughly 80% Of Reduction Benefit By Excluding Conventional Oil & Gas Sources

-- StateImpactPA: DEP Drops Major Source Of Methane From New Rule Limiting Oil & Gas Facility Emissions

-- Post-Gazette: Allegheny County Executive Defends Record On Fracking Amid Calls For Drilling Ban In County Parks

-- Beaver County Times: Big Sewickley Creek Plan Pits Drilling Company Against Watershed Defenders

-- PennLive: Natural Gas Royalty Payments On The Rise In Shale Gas Regions Of PA

[Posted: June 17, 2022]

6/20/2022