After more than four years of fighting efforts by bureaucrats at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to circumvent the Legislature and regulate our conventional oil and gas producers out of business, rural Pennsylvania earned a much-needed victory last week.
Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a bill to stop implementation of new regulations for shallow well producers that would have made it financially difficult, if not impossible, to continue their operations and further damaged our region’s struggling economy.
The regulations represented a gross overreach by the DEP, as the Legislature never authorized the agency to rewrite conventional regulations in the first place. A 2014 law aimed to clarify that regulations for conventional and unconventional drilling were to be entirely separate, but DEP ignored that too. It also violated elements of the state’s Regulatory Review Act relating to small businesses and ignored its own advisory boards.
In short, the entire process was a travesty.
And, without this law, the travesty would have turned to tragedy for the thousands of hard-working men and women whose livelihoods depend upon the conventional oil and gas industry.
To their credit, producers from across the Northern Tier immediately took an active role in advocating for their industry. They worked hard to educate anyone who would listen about the differences between the conventional and unconventional drilling industries and why the regulations being proposed by DEP were unreasonable and unnecessary. Those of us elected to represent areas where this type of drilling takes place did the same.
We explained that conventional operations are generally small, family-owned businesses that have been producing oil and gas safely in our region for generations. That the owners of these businesses and the people who work for them raise their families here. That they have a vested interest in abiding by the regulations already in place to ensure the health and safety or our communities and the environment.
And finally, a bipartisan majority of lawmakers came to see that the conventional oil and gas industry is a cornerstone of the economy in many areas of rural Pennsylvania. That it provides good, family-sustaining jobs to thousands of people. That it plays a vital role in meeting our Commonwealth’s energy needs. And that it produces a vital component for hundreds of products people use every day, including everything from gasoline for our cars and oil or natural gas to heat our homes to various plastics, asphalt, synthetic fabrics, medicines and more.
Further recognizing the importance of this industry, the new law, Act 52 of 2016, creates the Pennsylvania Grade Crude Development Advisory Council. This council would help prevent anything like this from happening again by having a council of experienced people in place to advise and assist DEP in ensuring any new regulations affecting the conventional oil and gas industry are reasonable and reflect the unique characteristics and processes of shallow well drilling.
This truly is a victory for our area and all of rural Pennsylvania.
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(Causer represents the 67th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. The district includes all of McKean and Cameron counties and a large portion of Potter County.)
