HARRISBURG (TNS) — Regulatory sausage making is rarely a straight line from A to B. The gnarly path for oil and gas emissions rules required a new alphabet.
Gov. Tom Wolf has issued an emergency certification to enact rules governing the emissions of volatile organic compounds from existing shallow oil and gas sites six years after they were first mandated by federal environmental regulators.
“What exactly are we voting on here?” Glendon King, executive director of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, asked during Wednesday morning’s meeting of the Environmental Quality Board.
The group, which is responsible for promulgating regulations for the state Department of Environmental Protection, was holding a third vote on the same rule it had already approved once in 2019 and again last month.
This time, the regulation would be attached to Mr. Wolf’s certification so that it can be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin before the Dec. 16 deadline set by the federal government.
After that date, hundreds of millions in federal highway funds would be withheld from the state until the rules were adopted. The rule is expected to be published and, thereby, become effective on Dec. 10.
The emergency procedure has only been used a handful of times in the past, Mr. King said during Wednesday’s meeting, launching into an angry objection.
“The only reason we’re here today is because of the department’s incompetence,” he said about the DEP.
“No regulation takes six years to complete. Every single other state, when they were told to do this, did this years ago.” He accused everyone in the room, “with a few exceptions,” of not caring about the legal process by which regulations are supposed to be drafted and reviewed.
The original mandate for states to regulate these emissions from oil and gas sites was issued by federal environmental regulators in 2016. The DEP proposed the rules in December 2019 and held public hearings on them the following year.
But the agency didn’t release a final rulemaking until early this year. Then, faced with opposition from shallow oil and gas producers and from lawmakers, split the rules into two parts: one that applies to that kind of well and the other that applies to unconventional shale gas producers.
The most recent wrench in the rulemaking process was thrown by the Republican members of the House Environmental Resources Committee when, two weeks ago, they issued a letter of disapproval that launched a 14-day review period, effectively suspending the rulemaking until next year’s legislative session.
Rep. Greg Vitali, the Democratic chairman of that committee, called Mr. King’s comments “appalling” and his interpretation of the timeline incorrect.
“I’ve seen my conservative colleagues starve the DEP of resources and then blame them for not moving faster,” Mr. Vitali said. “I’ve watched and interacted with DEP personnel — how they tried to move this through the process, how they’ve had to balance the potential for lawsuits.
“I just can’t stomach what I’m hearing.”
In the end, the vote was 15-2, with Mr. King and Nick Troutman, a representative for Sen. Gene Yaw, disapproving.
The rulemaking sets limits for emissions of volatile organic compounds from natural gas sources, such as pneumatic controllers, pumps, compressors and storage tanks. A co-benefit will be reducing methane leaks from this equipment. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas.
Conventional — that is, shallow oil and gas wells and associated infrastructure — resources are responsible for most of the state’s gas industry emissions.
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