On Jan. 24 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Small Business Compliance Advisory Committee will hold a meeting in Harrisburg to discuss, among other things, RACT (“reasonably available control technology”) regulations for the oil and gas industry. The new regulations are aimed at further reducing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions at oil and gas sites. The new regs, scheduled to go into effect in 2021, will require the use of technology to achieve a 95% reduction in VOCs from existing sources, including storage tanks, pneumatic pumps and centrifugal compressors. Supposedly this is a requirement being driven by a Control Technology Guideline (CTG) from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. We’re not sure whether conventional/vertical, or unconventional/shale will be affected by the coming changes. We suspect both will be affected. So it behooves the industry to get involved now, while there’s still time to tweak the new regs…
