The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been working on revisions to oil and gas regulations, something called Chapter 78, since 2011. In 2012 the new Act 13 drilling law required the DEP to update Chapter 78 to reflect the new reality of shale drilling. Over the past three years, the DEP held nine public hearings and received some 24,000 public comments on the proposed changes (see PA DEP Extends Roadshow for Public Comment on New Drilling Rules). The new rules were supposed to be over and done with long before now, but got derailed by last year’s election cycle. New governor, new secretary of the DEP, and guess what? The proposed rules have changed yet again. There’s a new due date too: the final rules won’t be ready until early 2016. Yesterday the DEP released yet another revision to the rules (we’ve lost track how many times the rules have been revised and changed). Drillers under Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf and his PennFutureDEP Sec. John Quigley want to increase the red tape drillers must navigate. Among the changes in this latest draft (full copy below) are…
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been working on revisions to oil and gas regulations, something called Chapter 78, since 2011. In 2012 the new Act 13 drilling law required the DEP to update Chapter 78 to reflect the new reality of shale drilling. Over the past three years, the DEP held nine public hearings and received some 24,000 public comments on the proposed changes (see 