Regulation

Major changes are on the way for Pennsylvania’s conventional (vertical) and unconventional (shale/horizontal) drillers. In 2011 PA began a process that’s gone on way too long, to update certain regulations that apply to oil and gas drillers known as Chapter 78 of the 1984 Oil and Gas Act. Along the way the PA legislature decided there should be separate rules governing conventional and unconventional drilling–so Chapter 78 has become Chapter 78 (conventional) and 78a (unconventional). PA was close to adopting the new rules at the end of the Tom Corbett administration but then he lost his bid for re-election, throwing the process into turmoil once again with newly elected Tom Wolf and his PennFuture buddies wanting to put their own stamp on drilling regulations in the Keystone State (see PA DEP Sec Quigley Pulls a Fast One, Changes Drilling Rules). Yesterday the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the final draft version for both Chapter 78 and 78a (copy below). Last week the group that will consider this new draft for conventional drilling, the Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC), preemptively said they would vote against adopting the draft (see PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him). PennFuture DEP Sec. Quigley said, “COGAC’s opposition will not hinder the progress of the final rule, and I hope when they meet in August that they are prepared to engage with us as we finalize the rule.” In other words: “Screw you, I’ll do what I want to do anyway.” We predict fireworks at the COGAC meeting on August 27 in Harrisburg…
Read More “PA DEP Finalizes Onerous New Drilling Regs, Industry Opposes”

Looks like the PennFuture Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, didn’t get exactly what he wanted with new appointments to the new Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC). You may recall that Quigley, in an unprecedented move, fired all of the members of the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and in its place created a new TAB and a second, new group–COGAC (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). We speculated he was packing both boards with yes men and women–but it turns out the members of COGAC aren’t saluting the chief. The purpose in having two boards is to represent the different interests of shale drillers (TAB) and traditional, much smaller “mom and pop” conventional drillers (COGAC). New drilling regulations are about to be imposed on both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers. Conventional drillers have said, for years, that many of the rules applied to shale drillers should not apply to them because it is a vastly different extraction process. The voting members of the new COGAC have weighed in and told Quigley, in a letter, that they will not support the rules he intends to release in late August. In fact, they outright oppose those rules as applied to conventional drillers. Quigley has said, as he typically does, “screw you” in so many words…
Read More “PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him”