Energy and the Environment

Published on: August 19, 2015

EPA Proposes Additional Regulations to Limit Emissions of Methane and VOC’s

Big news this week about the Environmental Protection Agency’s new proposed regulations to limit emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from oil and gas drilling, operating, compression and processing facilities. EPA’s proposed new rules can be viewed here. Among other things, the proposed regs would require operators to use “green completion” technology in drilling and completing wells, to reduce emissions of natural gas during those operations. The proposed rules would apply only to “new sources” of emissions, not existing facilities.

Representative Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, called the proposed rules “yet another example of the Obama administration’s war on American energy jobs.” Barry Russell, CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the proposed rules would cause “unnecessary costs and added uncertainty” that would “inflict more pain on the men and women who work in the oil and gas industry at a time when market forces are already creating economic challenges.” Environmentalists praised the proposed regulations, but said that EPA needs to begin regulating emissions from existing facilities.

VOCs are carbon-based molecules that evaporate at ordinary temperatures and pressures, and are emitted into the air during oil and gas production, gathering, transportation and processing activities. They include benzene, ethylbenzene, and n-hexane, which are harmful to human health. VOCs and methane are also powerful greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming according to scientific consensus.

Continue reading →

Published on: July 29, 2015

New EPA Program to Limit Methane Emissions: “Methane Challenge”

By John McFarland

The EPA this week published a “proposed framework” for a new voluntary program for the oil and gas sector to reduce methane emissions – the “Natural Gas STAR Methane Challenge Program.” It is part of the administration’s continuing effort to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The proposal can be found here.

I’m no expert on air emissions standards. As a citizen reading the proposal, I was struck by the increasing intensity of efforts to address emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds in the oil and gas sector.

In 1993, EPA created its Natural Gas STAR Program, a voluntary program in which oil and gas companies could commit to identify opportunities in their companies to reduce methane emissions and report on their progress. According to the EPA, Gas STAR partner companies have reported methane emission reductions of more than one trillion cubic feet through 2013.

Continue reading →

Published on: July 15, 2015

Natural Gas and the Climate Debate

By John McFarland

Here is an excellent article by Michael Levy, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations: “Fracking and the Climate Debate,” published in the journal Democracy. A well-reasoned and balanced summary of the debates over the role of natural gas in our energy future and its potential impact on our climate. Lengthy, but well worth reading.

Levy gives a good history of recent remarkable changes in the roles of coal and natural gas in US energy:

Between 1999 and 2005, the United States had added the equivalent of 200 nuclear power plants’ worth of natural gas-fueled electricity plants, even as U.S. coal-fired capacity actually fell. But by 2007, with natural gas prices rising, the U.S. government predicted a reversal: Over the next two decades, coal-fired power plants would be built at a furious pace, while natural gas would stagnate. This would be disastrous for U.S. greenhouse gas emissions: By 2030, it was predicted, the fleet of coal-fired power plants would belch three billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, massively raising U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. …

Continue reading →

Published on: July 1, 2015

Town of DISH Victorious in Amarillo Court of Appeals

By John McFarland

Residents of DISH, Texas were awarded a victory by the Amarillo Court of Appeals in their long-running fight with pipeline companies. Sciscoe et al. v. Enbridge Gathering (North Texas), L.P., et al., No. 07-13-00391-CV. In an opinion issued on June 1, the court held that the plaintiffs are entitled to a trial on their claims that the pipelines’ gathering and compression facilities caused damages to their properties from noise and emissions that constituted trespass and nuisance.

DISH residents have fought the pipeline companies for years. The companies constructed several compressors and a metering station just outside the town between 2005 and 2009. Residents began to complain of excessive noise and offensive odors and said they suffered adverse health effects. In 2008, the residents complained to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which conducted monitoring in 2009 and 2010 and concluded that emissions from the compressors “would not be expected to cause short-term adverse health effects, adverse vegetative effects, or odors.” The Texas Department of State Health Services performed medical tests on 28 DISH residents for exposure to chemicals, and tested tap water; it found no evidence of exposure to chemicals. Those findings were contradicted by tests conducted by Plaintiffs’ expert, Wolf Eagle Environmental, which found that Plaintiffs were exposed to harmful emissions of benzene, xylene, ethyl benzene, toluene and other harmful chemicals.

Finally, 18 DISH residents sued the pipelines in 2001 for damages, alleging nuisance and trespass. The town of DISH also filed suit, seeking damages for the loss of tax revenue resulting from reduced property values caused by the compressor station.

Continue reading →

Published on: May 21, 2015

New York vs. Texas

By John McFarland

Two recent articles brought to mind the trade-offs in the debate over hydraulic fracturing.

First, the Department of Environmental Conservation of New York State issued its Final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, on the environmental impacts of allowing hydraulic fracturing in New York. New York has had a moratorium on fracking for the last several years, even though a substantial portion of the Marcellus formation underlies the state. It appears that New York is headed for a permanent ban on the practice.

I haven’t studied the EIS, which runs to several hundred pages. But it is a thorough catalogue and discussion of the environmental impacts of the drilling boom from fracking and horizontal drilling, most of which we know well by now: water use, surface spills, groundwater impacts, waste disposal, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, health risks, visual impacts on the landscape, truck traffic, seismicity — all are discussed in great detail.

Continue reading →

Published on: May 15, 2015

Google and Pipeline Leaks

By John McFarland

Google has teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund to detect leaks in gas lines in the Los Angeles Area, Boston, Indianapolis, Staten Island, Syracuse, and Burlington, Vermont. Google attached methane detectors to the cars it uses to create its street map images and has mapped the locations where it found levels of methane high enough to indicate pipeline methane leaks. A great use of new technology for a public purpose. View Google’s maps here. EDF has teamed up with industry and scientists to attack methane emissions, part of EDF’s efforts to combat global warming.

Published on: April 24, 2015

House Science and Technology Committee in Washington Hears from RRC Chairman Craddick on Fracking and Earthquakes

By John McFarland

Christi Craddick, Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, testified in Washington yesterday before the House Science and Technology Committee, chaired by Lamar Smith, as part of a panel addressing environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing and wastewater disposal. Introductory remarks and testimony can be viewed here. The testimony reflects, I think, the political polarization in Washington. Because of recent reports about earthquakes in North Texas and Oklahoma, a lot of the testimony related to those issues, as well as the ability of local municipalities to regulate drilling in their jurisdictions – an issue now before the Texas Legislature.

Published on: January 14, 2015

Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission Initiates Online Complaint Process

By John McFarland

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission now allows landowners with complaints against operators to file their complaint online. Go to http://cogcc.state.co.us/ and click on “Complaints” in the left-hand column.If you’re a surface owner with no mineral rights and you have objections to a proposed well location, you can also get the COGCC to inspect the site and consider your objections and require the operator to accommodate your concerns.

The online portal is very user-friendly and a real effort to make it easier for the public to participate in the process. The Texas Railroad Commission should take note. The COGCC has also significantly increased its oversight staff, increased its collaboration with local governmental entities, sponsored studies on air and water impacts, and adopted policies on health and safety issues.

Published on: January 12, 2015

Earthquakes in Irving

By John McFarland

A recent “swarm” of small quakes in Irving has caused a stir and ignited a series of articles about the relation between oil and gas activity and seismic events. The quakes in Irving were strong enough to knock some books off of shelves.

After residents of the town of Azle experienced a series of quakes in 2013, residents protested in Austin before the Texas Railroad Commission, and as a result the RRC hired its own seismologist to study the problem. Most scientists have linked quakes in Texas and Oklahoma to injection of large volumes of produced water. Recently one study in Ohio linked quakes there to recent fracking of wells in the area.

Most if not all of the actual studies of recent quake activity are being done by Southern Methodist University. It has studied the quakes around Azle, and a report of its study is expected soon. After the quakes in Irving, SMU is installing seismic monitors in that area.

Continue reading →

Published on: September 23, 2014

EPA Praises RRC

By John McFarland

In a letter to the Texas Railroad Commission commenting on the RRC’s proposed rules on curbing earthquakes caused by high-pressure injection of waste fluids, the Environmental Protection Agency “applauded the RRC’s efforts to ensure it has sufficient regulatory authority to respond to any event of the type where concerns may arise.” Maybe the agencies will kiss and make up? Not likely. But the EPA agrees with proposed rules published by the RRC that would require applicants for disposal well permits to submit information about the area’s risk for earthquakes as part of their application. The rules also strengthen the RRC’s authority to limit or halt injection from existing wells where earthquake events occur.

Initially the RRC was slow to respond to complaints about earthquakes. At one point, citizens from the town of Azle, particularly affected by earthquakes, staged a protest before the RRC at which Azle citizens serenaded the commission with their own composition based on Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up. The RRC has now hired its own seismologist, and although Commissioners are cautious about connecting earthquakes to oil and gas activity, the proposed rules are a step in the right direction.

Texas now has more than 3,600 active commercial injection wells; it granted 668 permits last year alone. Earthquakes strong enough to damage homes have occurred in the Barnett Shale region. Similar problems have occurred in Oklahoma and other regions.

Continue reading →