Resolution opposing new well-site regulations passes through Pa. House committee

Aug. 2—HARRISBURG — A concurrent resolution passed through the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on the strength of the Republican majority vote, aiming to block new rules regulating hazardous emissions from unconventional oil and natural gas wells.

The resolution passed through the committee on a 15-9 party-line vote Tuesday. It now moves to the full House for consideration. It must also pass through the Senate. Both chambers have until mid-November — the longer of 10 legislative session days or 30 calendar days — to adopt the resolution.

If ultimately successful, Gov. Tom Wolf can veto the measure and the General Assembly can attempt an override.

Committee Democrats warned that delaying or overturning the new rules ahead of a Dec. 16 deadline to comply risks at least $500 million in federal funds for highway projects including the rebuild of I-95.

State Rep. Greg Vitali, minority chair of the committee, said that the well industry is unopposed to the regulations and that two municipal associations representing local governments stand against the proposed resolution.

"We are risking canceling or delaying these projects, for what? For practices the industry is already doing and does not oppose. This is madness," Vitali said.

Republicans countered that the threat is unlikely to be carried through by the Biden Administration against a Democratic governor and that there are many exceptions built into the law to avoid such a penalty.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, committee chair, accused the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) of delaying the process for six years and could have adopted federal guidelines as early as 2018. Instead, he said the Wolf Administration sought more stringent rules beyond that sought by the feds through an Environmental Quality Board process he said was "rigged."

"It's all a hollow threat," Metcalfe said of the funding risk.

Approved unanimously on July 21 by the bipartisan Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the final-form rule adds "reasonably available" technological controls and emissions limitations as mandated by the federal Clean Air Act.

The regulations first proposed by DEP are specific to unconventional well operations including shale fracking and target volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.

According to the final-form rule, VOCs damage air quality and threaten public health and welfare and environmental health.

The new control measures would reduce VOC emissions by nearly half annually at unconventional well sites and benefit the state's economy by protecting agricultural crop yields, hardwood forestry production and tourism at state parks, according to the DEP.

As a byproduct, the Department states the rules would also limit methane emissions.

Proposed regulations governing emissions at conventional oil and gas well sites are pending.