EPA Issues Updated, Achievable Air Pollution Standards for Oil and Natural Gas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EPA - Washington, D.C., April 18, 2012

EPA Issues Updated, Achievable Air Pollution Standards for Oil and Natural Gas

Half of fractured wells already deploy technologies in line with final standards, which slash harmful emissions while reducing cost of compliance

WASHINGTON – In response to a court deadline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized standards to reduce harmful air pollution associated with oil and natural gas production. The updated standards, required by the Clean Air Act, were informed by the important feedback from a range of stakeholders including the public, public health groups, states and industry. As a result, the final standards reduce implementation costs while also ensuring they are achievable and can be met by relying on proven, cost-effective technologies as well as processes already in use at approximately half of the fractured natural gas wells in the United States. These technologies will not only reduce 95 percent of the harmful emissions from these wells that contribute to smog and lead to health impacts, they will also enable companies to collect additional natural gas that can be sold. Natural gas is a key component of the nation’s clean energy future and the standards released today make sure that we can continue to expand production of this important domestic resource while reducing impacts to public health, and most importantly builds on steps already being taken by industry leaders.

"The president has been clear that he wants to continue to expand production of important domestic resources like natural gas, and today’s standard supports that goal while making sure these fuels are produced without threatening the health of the American people," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "By ensuring the capture of gases that were previously released to pollute our air and threaten our climate, these updated standards will not only protect our health, but also lead to more product for fuel suppliers to bring to market. They're an important step toward tapping future energy supplies without exposing American families and children to dangerous health threats in the air they breathe.”

When natural gas is produced, some of the gas escapes the well and may not be captured by the producing company. These gases can pollute the air and as a result threaten public health. Consistent with states that have already put in place similar requirements, the updated EPA standards released today include the first federal air rules for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured, specifically requiring operators of new fractured natural gas wells to use cost-effective technologies and practices to capture natural gas that might otherwise escape the well, which can subsequently be sold. EPA’s analysis of the final rules shows that they are highly cost-effective, relying on widely available technologies and practices already deployed at approximately half of all fractured wells, and consistent with steps industry is already taking in many cases to capture additional natural gas for sale, offsetting the cost of compliance. Together these rules will result in $11 to $19 million in savings for industry each year. In addition to cutting pollution at the wellhead, EPA’s final standards also address emissions from storage tanks and other equipment.

Also in line with the executive order released by the president last week on natural gas development, the rule released today received important interagency feedback and provides industry flexibilities. Based on new data provided during the public comment period, the final rule establishes a phase-in period that will ensure emissions reduction technology is broadly available. During the first phase, until January 2015, owners and operators must either flare their emissions or use emissions reduction technology called “green completions,” technologies that are already widely deployed at wells. In 2015, all new fractured wells will be required to use green completions. The final rule does not require new federal permits. Instead, it sets clear standards and uses enhanced reporting to strengthen transparency and accountability, and ensure compliance, while establishing a consistent set of national standards to safeguard public health and the environment.

An estimated 13,000 new and existing natural gas wells are fractured or re-fractured each year. As those wells are being prepared for production, they emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to smog formation, and air toxics, including benzene and hexane, which can cause cancer and other serious health effects. In addition, the rule is expected to yield a significant environmental co-benefit by reducing methane, the primary constituent of natural gas. Methane, when released directly to the atmosphere, is a potent greenhouse gas—more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

During the nearly 100-day public comment period, the agency received more than 150,000 comments on the proposed rules from the public, industry, environmental groups and states. The agency also held three public hearings. The updated standards were informed by the important feedback received through the public comment period, reducing implementation cost and ensuring the achievable standard can be met by relying on proven, cost-effective technologies and processes already in use.

http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/actions.html


Environmental Groups Praise EPA’s First-Ever Clean Air Protections for Fracking

Joint statement by Sierra Club * Earthjustice * Clean Air Task Force * Environment America * Earthworks * Clean Water Action - April 18, 2012
Agency Takes Important First Step to Protect Air Quality and Public Health

Washington, D.C., April 18—Today environmental groups praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) vital updates to nationwide air quality protections to include oil and natural gas production. This is the first federal safeguard aimed at curbing air pollution from hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking.’

The EPA’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS) will benefit the health of Americans and our environment in many ways. The updated standards will result in major reductions in emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), toxic benzene and methane, a highly potent contributor to climate disruption. These pollutants are known to cause asthma attacks, hospital admissions, emergency room visits, cancer and even premature death.

The measure will also benefit the gas industry –EPA projects that capturing more methane and other gasses to send to market will save an estimated $30 million annually.

Today’s announcement by the EPA is a major step forward. However, the two-year delay in reducing pollution from wellheads is an unnecessary setback because industry can meet those standards now. The environmental community is committed to working with EPA to strengthen the public health and air quality safeguards to protect families who live near existing fracking sites.

The EPA proposed the updated safeguards in July 2011. Since the proposal, environmental groups submitted more than 156,000 comments and turned out hundreds of supporters of strong standards to hearings in Pittsburgh, PA, Denver, CO, and Arlington, TX.

In response to EPA’s announcement, environmental leaders released the following statements:

“EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is taking an important first step in closing loopholes for the natural gas industry and addressing dangerous air quality levels in and near frack-fields across the country,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “The natural gas industry dumps massive amounts of air pollutants into our air every day, sickening families and children. An industry that touts its ability to efficiently drill thousands of wells thousands of feet into the earth is crying wolf when it claims it can’t build enough tanks to capture wellhead pollution. It’s time we clean up the natural gas industry’s dirty and reckless practices.”

“From Colorado to Pennsylvania, the gas industry is making a killing from drilling, and at the very least they should cut dirty and dangerous air pollution that threatens our families’ health,” said John Rumpler, senior attorney for Environment America. “EPA’s action today is a breath of fresh air for every man, woman, and child living in the shadow of the gas drilling boom.”

“Left to its own devices, the oil and gas industry has turned the clear skies over Wyoming as smoggy as the car-choked highways of Los Angeles. For decades, industry had a free pollution pass. Thanks to a court victory, that changes today,” said Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen. “There is more work to be done to protect Americans living near oil and gas fields from cancer and other unacceptable health threats, but this rule from EPA is an important first step.”

“The stories of families hurt by gas drilling’s air pollution were essential to the adoption of these new public health safeguards,” said Bruce Baizel, senior attorney for Earthworks. “Hopefully this much-needed first step will soon be expanded to better protect the families that illustrated the need for the new rules in the first place.”

"These important rules start to cut down on air pollution that harms people living near wells, creates smog, and warms the climate," said David McCabe, senior scientist with Clean Air Task Force. "They are a solid start, but we need to keep working to reduce pollution from the gas industry all the way from the well to the customer. People who live near compressors and equipment already in use need to see their air cleaned up as well. Unfortunately these rules won't do that."

“Our members in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Colorado have suffered because state regulators haven’t acted to control oil and gas operations, so these standards are a win-win-win,” said Lynn Thorp, Clean Water Action National Campaigns Director. “They protect people from air pollution, help curb climate change and save the industry money. People expect the federal government to use their authority to protect their health, their drinking water and the air they breathe and this is a good first step.”

http://www.earthworksaction.org/media/detail/environmental_groups_praise_epas_first_ever_clean_air_protections_for_frack

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Natural gas fields have provided a fount of cash for Texas cities Second of two parts Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11066/1130239-84.stm#ixzz1Fw4LbYBB

By Bill Toland - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Monday, March 07, 2011
Note by Faith Chatham: I have read a lot of coverage on gas drilling in the Barnett Shale. Mr. Toland's 2 part series is the best articles I have read in years and can serve as a primer of what resident's need to know when the land man starts showing up in their neighborhood. I am excerpting some of his second article below but recommend that you click on the READ MORE LINK and read the entire article.

Talk of the town
Despite success stories, people remain wary about urban gas drilling, and it's hard to overstate the degree to which gas drilling dominates the news cycles.

The local newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, runs a weekly report on all the newly active rigs in the 24-county area -- usually there are several dozen new rigs put up each week. In a three-day span three months ago, the newspaper and TV news reported on the city school district's ongoing gas lease negotiations, city council's long-debated air quality study, lawsuits over polluted water wells, and an early morning gas leak (and resulting vapor cloud) at an XTO Energy well site north of Fort Worth.

Some in Fort Worth object to urban drilling notionally, concerned about long-term water quality and health effects. But others object to the way they've been treated by the industry and its "landmen" -- the free-agent real estate negotiators who gather signatures on behalf of drillers, bundling them and then selling the waivers, titles and leases to energy companies.

The process sometimes pits neighbors against one another.

"I would describe myself as very pro-drilling, pro-oil, pro-gas," said Laura Reeves, a Fort Worth resident who lives in an impeccably decorated townhome and can't remember the last Democrat she voted for.

"I have friends who work for Chesapeake. I know people who need their jobs. I don't disagree with drilling for gas. I disagree with drilling for gas in the middle of a (populated area)."

Chesapeake Energy wants to drill on a vacant tract of land to the immediate south of her new, gated townhome community. Her complex, and that empty tract --being called "Westridge" by Chesapeake -- are just a few hundred yards west of Como, a historically black neighborhood. Mrs. Reeves says the industry has tried to take advantage of the poverty levels in Como.

The landmen wanted Mrs. Reeves and neighbors to sign waiver agreements, allowing Chesapeake to drill within Fort Worth's prescribed setback radius if city council subsequently approves the variance request. The "setback" is the minimum distance that a well must be from the nearest home; in order to drill inside the city's 600-foot setback radius, an energy company has to get enough neighbors to sign waiver agreements, and it often sweetens the pot with waiver bonuses.

The waiver payments are thank-you notes written in cash, because the people who sign the waivers -- townhome residents, renters, business owners -- often won't see any other money from the drilling. They won't get royalties, because most don't own any mineral rights, and they won't receive a surface lease payment, because the drilling isn't happening on their property.

The first offer that Mrs. Reeves received from the landman that knocked on her door in autumn 2009? Sign the waiver and she gets $74.

Small potatoes to her -- but more attractive to those living in poverty, she said. Waiver bonuses can increase dramatically if you live closer to a drilling site, or if you live in a more well-to-do neighborhood, but generally landmen want to get the best lease and waiver terms, at the lowest price, for the companies they represent.

"You may as well sign," the landman told her, because "78 percent of your neighbors have signed." Turns out only three of her 70 fellow townhome owners had signed waivers, she said.

But because landmen aren't employed by the energy companies, and because there is no state board that licenses or regulates these middlemen, punishing them for misrepresentations is difficult, according to foes.

"I realized some of them had signed the waiver and didn't have a clue what they signed," said Mrs. Reeves. "They felt stupid because they just believed what the landmen told them."

When Mrs. Reeves and others tried to fight off the Chesapeake project -- organizing community meetings, attending city council hearings, going door-to-door in Como -- she says she was caricatured by some in the energy industry as a bored, blonde housewife.

"I was insulted," she said. "They were counting on me, the white blonde, not [setting] foot in a black neighborhood."

But she did, and for a time, it appeared that the drilling project near Como would be rebuffed; Chesapeake withdrew its drilling request last August. In February, though, landmen made headway with one of the neighbors to the west of the Westridge site, a prominent businessman, and Chesapeake now intends to drill a few hundred feet to the west of its original location.

Ms. Knowles, the master's student -- whose boss, state Rep. Lon Burnam, called for a moratorium on new Texas drilling permits -- said the landmen are often accused of misrepresenting the degree of neighborhood unanimity as well as the scope of the drilling projects. They say that the rigs will be up for only a few months, which is often true.

What they don't say is that the rigs can return again and again to drill new wells, as long as they have an active lease. Or that a "few months" of disruption can turn into a few years, or that your home value could decline.

"Nothing can be done if they lie, cheat or steal," she said.

Gas lines another issue
Another thing that landmen may or may not bring up is the issue of gas lines. To get the raw gas to market, the energy companies or subcontractors will also eventually have to build "gathering" lines from the pads to the nearest processing plant.

In Texas, energy companies and private pipeline owners are treated more or less like public utilities, and they have the ability to condemn pieces of private property, if need be, in order to lay the gathering lines.

"That creates a whole new issue," said Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, a former Fort Worth city councilwoman.

"You get lines crisscrossing all over your city ... and once you've laid a line that's carrying natural gas, you can't develop it" or put other utilities beneath it, like electric or sewage. "The most you can do is put a surface parking lot on it."

And that's just the lines they know about. Pipeline maps and surveys have proven unreliable, and records from the Texas Railroad Commission, which issues the operating permits for the raw gas lines, are often incomplete, critics say.

"There are lines all over the place that really no one at the city levels were ever told," Ms. Davis said. "And we may find that it inhibits" future development -- or, worse, could cause an accident when someone tries to dig a backyard swimming pool and finds that the gathering line is not where the pipeline company thinks it is.

Add the 360,000 miles of gathering line in Texas to the 20,000 Barnett gas wells, all of it being monitored by just a handful of state inspectors, and people have good reason to worry. "Who can feel safe [when] that's the way it's functioning?" Ms. Davis said. "You can't trust these companies to self-police."

Read more article part 2: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11066/1130239-84.stm#ixzz1Fw5uh7LH