Fugitive Methane
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Administration fiddled with regulations to cut down on so-called fugitive methane emissions from drilling and pipelines for years. The regulations are known as General Permit 5 (GP-5) and General Permit 5A (GP-5A). GP-5 applies to pipelines and compressor stations, while GP-5A applies to well pads and drilling. The new regs went into effect in August--but only for new, not existing sources of methane emissions. Have no fear, Wolf has a plan to apply the same onerous regulations to existing sources starting next year (see Other Shoe Drops: PA Methane Emissions Regs for Existing Sources). Here's the thing, PA's standards are worse (far tighter) than federal regulations from the Obama EPA. Earlier this week the Trump Administration proposed to right-size the Obama EPA's overly-harsh methane regulations for oil and gas (see Trump EPA Releases Less Onerous Methane Regs for Oil & Gas). Yet Pennsylvania refuses to follow suit and relax their new, over-the-top regulations. Which means they are intentionally harming the shale industry in PA, putting it at a disadvantage to the shale industry in other states by making it harder (and much more costly) to do business in PA...
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