PA DEP Releases VOC Reg to Control Conventional Well Emissions

As we told you last week, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) was long ago supposed to have reintroduced a new set of regulations for the conventional oil and gas industry in the state to control methane emissions (see PA DEP Playing Beat the Clock with VOC Reg for Conventional Wells). The method used by the DEP for controlling methane emissions in shale wells, and intends to do with conventional wells, is by controlling VOCs, or volatile organic compounds. Control one, and you control the other, supposedly. The DEP is playing "beat the clock" because if new regs are not in place by the end of this year, the federal government is threatening to withhold $500 million (or more) in federal highway funds from the state. Wonder of wonders, the DEP issued a draft of their proposed conventional regs late Friday night and will discuss them at a meeting of the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) tomorrow. Unfortunately, what the DEP issued is the same-old-same-old.

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