The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled an off-the-floor meeting TODAY to consider House Bill 2154 (Causer-R- Cameron) in a last-minute action to weaken environmental standards for conventional (not Shale) oil and gas drilling, an industry whose violations of existing regulations have tripled over the last 3 years.
If the Committee reports out the bill, it would be in position for a final Senate vote.
The conventional oil and gas drilling industry has a full court press underway to get a final vote on the bill by the end of Wednesday to get it to the Governor’s desk before the legislation dies and has to start over next year.
Gov. Wolf, the Department of Environmental Protection and environmental groups have consistently opposed the legislation.
In anticipation of a Senate vote, the Environmental Defense Fund and PA Environmental Council Tuesday sent this letter to all members of the Senate expressing their significant concerns with the bill--.
“The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) wish to express our opposition to House Bill 2154 (P.N. 3477) and urge a NO vote on this legislation, which is expected to be voted on today in the Senate Appropriations Committee meeting.
“We anticipate that this legislation may be voted on final passage in the Senate today or tomorrow and we would again urge a NO vote on HB 2154.
“At the start, we wish to express our deep concern over the stated intent for this legislation. It is our position that common-sense, practical solutions exist to address the concerns of small company operators.
“However, HB 2154 is a wholesale unraveling of protections that were established with the bipartisan enactment of Act 13 of 2012. In fact, this legislation would result in a law even weaker than the 1984 Oil and Gas Act in many important respects.
“Considering that the Department of Environmental Protection’s recent 2017 Oil and Gas Report findings that the number of conventional oil and gas well violations more than tripled between 2015 (1,024) and 2017 (3,273), the timing and design of this legislation is ill-advised.
“If this legislation were to pass, Pennsylvania would have the discreditable distinction of being the only state to significantly reduce environmental protection, best practices and the use of new technology related to oil and gas development in the modern era, walking back decades-old protections and operating standards that are accepted by both the industry at large and other oil and gas producing states.
“To make matters worse, an out-of-state company that bought nearly one quarter of the state’s active conventional wells (over 24,000) would face weakened idle well standards and insufficient bonding requirements amid questions about the company’s ultimate ability to pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars of plugging liability it faces – nothing in this bill would require it to do so.
“Just some of the provisions of this legislation include:
-- Complete removal of the requirement to analyze potential impacts to Public Resources. This requirement was established in the 1984 law, expanded by Act 13, and validated by the Pennsylvania courts.
-- Complete removal of the requirement for operators to disclose chemicals used in fracturing. Disclosure – for both conventional and unconventional operators – is currently required practice in Pennsylvania as well as in virtually all other jurisdictions in the United States.
-- Removing containment, as well as spill and leak prevention and reporting provisions, despite the documented fact that conventional sites present threats similar to unconventional operations.
-- Exempting certain existing wastewater treatment facilities from state water protection requirements.
-- Weakening protections for impacted drinking water supplies, including failure to ensure that, in all instances, replacement supplies meet the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
-- Weakening well integrity standards that are critical for groundwater protection.
-- Preserving woefully inadequate bonding and other financial assurance requirements, which threaten to leave Pennsylvania on the hook for costly remediation work in the decades to come.
“House Bill 2154 is a wholesale weakening of necessary protection standards; standards that are already the law in Pennsylvania, and that are accepted common practice in the industry and other oil and gas producing states. We strongly urge you to oppose this bill.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Sincerely,
Director, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, U.S. Climate and Energy
Environmental Defense Fund
Senior Vice President, Legal & Government Affairs
Pennsylvania Environmental Council
Click Here for a copy of the letter.
The Senate Appropriations Committee meeting will be in the Rules Room off-the-floor, which means the meeting could be held any time after 1:00 when the Senate convenes for session today.
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