Drilling / fracking / gas processing are becoming more complex with time

From an Article by Laura Legere, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 8, 2021

Pennsylvania’s oil and gas regulators are rolling out a voluntary program meant to encourage fracking and pipeline companies to reduce their environmental impact in ways that go far beyond what’s typically required. But will anyone actually use it?

The suite of 15 good deeds promoted in the program includes minimizing noise, plugging abandoned oil wells, powering equipment with renewable energy, improving water quality in historically polluted streams and planting trees to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Commit to enough good deeds and your earthmoving permit application for building a well pad or pipeline corridor will move to the top of the stack for review, leapfrogging those in line for a standard review.

During years of development, regulators with the PA Department of Environmental Protection have called the initiative an innovative, one-of-a-kind approach unlike any being pursued in other oil and gas drilling states — a way to help enhanced environmental practices catch on with all carrot and no stick.

So far, the industry seems uninspired. In comments on the draft “prioritized review” process, the Pennsylvania branch of the American Petroleum Institute called it “a cumbersome bureaucratic quagmire.”

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, based in Robinson, said it surveyed its members — who produce and transport most of the state’s natural gas — and none were interested in using the program in its current form.

The Wexford-based Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, which represents both shale and conventional companies, said its members also wouldn’t use the program as drafted. “The incentive is not worth the substantial additional effort and obligations required,” Dan Weaver, PIOGA’s executive director, wrote. “If the goal of the prioritized review process is to encourage applicants to incorporate superior environmental enhancements into their projects, why make the process so difficult, time consuming and costly?”

A two-part approach — PA-DEP officials say they are trying to find a balance so the program is ambitious but accessible.

The program envisions two classes of enhanced projects. One group would surpass typical practices for building or restoring oil and gas sites, like taking extra steps to protect wetlands, avoiding unnecessary fragmentation of forests, seeding with only Pennsylvania native plants, controlling invasive vegetation and improving habitat for threatened species. Many of those options were informed by practices that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources requires of oil and gas operations in state forests.

The second group includes an array of practices that aim to clean up environmental scars from past fossil fuel development — like plugging abandoned wells — or to reduce the environmental footprint of the current industry by cutting down on emissions of air pollution and climate warming greenhouse gases.

Projects in the first group are worth one point, and projects in the second group are worth two. A successful application needs a total of nine points.

If the qualifications aren’t demanding enough, PA-DEP fears being flooded with too many priority applications and slowing down review times for standard permits. “We want this to be a success,” Scott Perry, the deputy secretary in charge of DEP’s oil and gas office, said at an advisory board meeting in September. “If, in fact, it is not being utilized, then we will certainly reengage folks to make tweaks to what qualifies and the point system.”

A second attempt — The new program emerged when it became clear that an earlier fast-track permit review, known as an expedited review, wasn’t working. With expedited review, earthmoving plans prepared and certified by a licensed engineer were supposed to be approved within 14 business days instead of 60 calendar days under a standard review.

But environmental groups repeatedly challenged permits issued through the fast-track process in court and won, and PA-DEP was on the hook for their legal fees. In response, the agency started to scrutinize the expedited permits more rigorously, which bogged down the turnaround times.

In addition, ineligible or inaccurate submissions from companies backed up the queue. A 2016 review by PA-DEP found nearly 60% of applications for the expedited earthmoving permits between 2014 and 2016 had flaws that disqualified them from the speedier review process.

PA-DEP decided to scrap expedited review in favor of the incentive program.A key concern voiced by industry trade groups is that the carrot isn’t appetizing enough: There is little certainty that the new prioritized review process will actually result in faster permits.

Review times vary across regions, with the southwest district consistently taking more days on average to issue oil and gas earthmoving permits than the northwest and eastern districts, according to DEP statistics from 2017 through 2020. (DEP attributed a slowdown in the southwest district in 2020 to “significant compliance matters [that] required extensive engineering reviews.”)

The Marcellus Shale Coalition wrote that embarking on a prioritized review process without addressing the inconsistency in permit review times “is akin to building a permanent detour rather than fixing the roadway.”

Industry commenters also said it would be too hard to amass the number of points needed to qualify for a priority review. In some cases, the enhanced environmental projects could cost more than the erosion and stormwater control measures that are the purpose of the permit.

Not giving up yet — Still, neither the industry nor regulators want to give up, especially because the program was crafted with significant collaboration over the last three years.

“The intent of this venture is commendable and worth saving,” Mr. Weaver of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association wrote. “PIOGA is kindly asking that the department does not let all of this hard work, great ideas and concept sharing for enhancing the environment go to waste.”

Mr. Perry has promised PA-DEP will adjust the program if not enough companies are using it. “We are committed to keeping track of the success of this program so that we can hold it out as a model,” he said in September. “I really think it’s a model for all other oil and gas producing states.”

Now that the comment period on the draft is closed, DEP officials said they will review and respond to the comments and use them to make changes to a final draft.

Frack well pads & pipelines disturb hundreds of people and thousands of acres

Letter to Editor, Charleston Gazette (Opinion Section), August 4, 2018

Last month, our elected officials were hard at work to fund the Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA).

West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael led 22 senators to vote down a proposal from Sen. Richard Ojeda that would have funded teachers’ health care through an increased severance tax on natural gas extraction. Their justification? The natural gas market is “too volatile” to provide adequate, secure funding into the future. What foresight!

Acknowledging this legitimate concern (which may or may not be connected to the fact that these 22 state senators have collectively received over $140,000 from oil and gas companies in the form of campaign contributions, according to the secretary of state), Delegate Mick Bates is proposing a production fee for natural gas extraction, which would not be at the mercy of the market, in contrast to gas prices and a subsequent severance tax.

Revenue from this fee could then be deposited in a West Virginia Trust Fund, such as Ted Boettner of the West Virginia Center for Budget & Policy advocates, where it could compound over time, securing this funding stream in perpetuity.

For years, West Virginians neglected to reap the full financial benefit of the black gold extracted so painstakingly from our hills. Let’s not make this mistake again

Just as the people of West Virginia should be fairly compensated for these resources, our teachers must be compensated for the time, energy and talent they invest in our children, who are our future.

What are they worth?

>>>> Moira Reilly, Morgantown

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Marcellus Shale companies say proposed permit fee hike is too high

From an Article by Laura Legere, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 15, 2018

Marcellus Shale companies are resisting a proposal by Pennsylvania regulators to more than double the price of drilling permit applications.

The PA state Department of Environmental Protection says it needs to raise permit fees from $5,000 to $12,500 per shale well to keep the state’s oil and gas oversight program from running out of money by next summer.

In response, shale companies and trade groups that have backed past fee increases now argue in public comments that the department has not sufficiently justified the need for this one.

Other funding sources — including the impact fee on shale companies and the department’s share of the taxpayer-supported general fund — should be tapped first, they say.

Pennsylvania would impose the highest well permit fee in the nation if the proposal is adopted, the Robinson-based Marcellus Shale Coalition said.

PA-DEP’s oil and gas program reviews permit applications, inspects well sites and develops policies to improve oversight of the industry.

The monthlong public comment period on the proposal closed Monday. Common industry complaints in the comments included that past fee hikes did not lead to faster permit reviews, which dragged on well past mandated deadlines last year amid a shortage of reviewers, and that there is no guarantee the new proposal will have a different outcome.

Also, shale companies say they are being asked to subsidize oversight of the state’s conventional, storage and legacy wells, which take up about 40 percent of the agency’s workload.

While none of the industry commenters recommend raising fees on conventional drillers — and the department is not proposing any changes in conventional well fees — “it is readily apparent that PA-DEP is looking at the unconventional industry as a ‘cash cow,’” the Wexford-based Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association said.

A statewide environmental group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said it is clear that state regulators and lawmakers need to identify other options to “provide more stable funding for the agency while maintaining protections and balancing costs for the regulated community.”

Department officials acknowledge that one-time shale well permit fees are not a sustainable funding source for a broad program of oil and gas oversight, and they have pledged to advocate for a more balanced funding mix.

One goal would be to pursue funding “that doesn’t require someone else” — meaning, other PA-DEP programs or state agencies — “to get shortchanged for our benefit,” Scott Perry, the deputy secretary for the department’s office of oil and gas management, said at an advisory board meeting last week.

“I welcome everyone’s good ideas on how to do that,” he said.

It generally takes more than a year for a PA-DEP regulation to take effect after it is first proposed. The review process includes scrutiny by committees in the Republican-led General Assembly, which also determines the agency’s annual general fund appropriation in conjunction with the governor.

Thirty-two Republican state representatives wrote to criticize the permit fee proposal and questioned whether the department has the authority “to propose such a disproportionate share of funding responsibility upon one segment of industry.”

Instead, they suggested PA-DEP use part of its general fund appropriation to support the oil and gas program.

March for Science: April 22nd

No Science, Please, for Fracking Industry ….. ?

Essay by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV, April 4, 2017

The human brain is not a reality machine.  It is a device for survival in a world where problems must be solved, but exact reality is not needed.  Think about all the fantasies in literature, everything from “One Thousand and One Nights” which includes the flying carpet and the roc, a bird so large it can pick up a man and carry him away, to Frankenstein, the man crafted by early 19th century methods in the mind of Mary Shelly, and its predecessor, Prometheus, to Jules Vern’s fantasies, and so on.  These Universes exist in the mind only. As the prisoner in Mahler’s  symphony sings “die Gedanken sind frei”  - thoughts are free

Look too, at the variety of the world’s religions.  People believe and act on them.  An individual religion is not wired into human minds, but is learned from the culture surrounding the person.

However, the mind we have has made us a uniquely successful species.  About half of the primary biological productivity of the earth – that is all new growth on earth – is devoted to feeding, clothing, housing and keeping us alive.  No single species has been able to approach this in the past.

This presents a dilemma – a very powerful, useful organ for knowing is not directly attached to reality, but capable of unlimited flights of fantasy.  In the past this might have been more useful than it is for today’s humanity.  It provided diversity, and smaller, diverse systems are tolerant, because if one fails, others go ahead.  This is the nature of evolution.  It is not good when only one path is taken by all, because forethought and planning must be based on what is correct.  Failure is disaster for all.

We understand narratives, stories of explanation.  Cold facts must be linked into a story, an explanation, if they are to be remembered, transmitted, and useful. Fitting facts into a narrative that is parallel to the real world requires a very high skill.  It is injured by indifference, willful ignorance, and the big one, self interest.

Science is a system for getting a narrative, an explanation of phenomena, closer to reality. It works by using measurements, samples of the real world, and a procedure for debating proposed explanations.  It is a huge debating society, now so diverse there are many branches.  People spend their lives learning what is known, and adding to it.  It is written down and new ideas are debated world wide.  One makes points by suggesting new explanations for data, or by finding errors in new suggestions.  Competition is fierce.  It is a very social enterprise.

Rarely, people falsify data, and present new ideas based on false data.  But one of the key principles is that experiments must be repeatable by others, so fakers will eventually be found out.  Basic ideas change, too. At one time it was thought the planets go around the sun in circles.  More careful measurements showed they move in ellipses.  Most additions are not very large, but sometimes there is a tremendous change, such as when it was realized that the surface of the earth consists of plates that move, Plate Tectonic Theory, a cornerstone of Geology today.  Or the Quantum Theory, which is now a cornerstone of both chemistry and physics.

So sampling, careful measurements, and active, open debate bring science as close to the real world as anything today.  Unlike money, it has only indirect connection to power, however.  It must be financed, it doesn’t pay directly for itself, like so many things that affect us collectively, rather than individually.

The public narrative about fracking, however, is not science.  It is the device of individuals, not even checked with connections to reality, quite like literature.  It is a good, heartwarming story, claims of abundance, jobs, affluence. Here is a good example. It is widely promoted by those who hope to have some of its benefits, and by those who are afraid not to be a valued follower.

There is, however, a lot left out of this narrative.  The article referred to uses percent increase in O&G jobs, not actual figures.  The actual numbers are small compared to total employment.  The drilling industries are high investment, but actually low labor, in contrast to solar and wind.  Nor is externalized costs mentioned, nor the carbon dioxide burden it would cause.

Another misunderstanding: the US gas industry has smaller reserves, much smaller, than places overseas, which already have production equipment in place, ready to pump. You can check this out yourself.  The four nations ahead of us have 12.7 times as much gas as the United States, and Russia in particular hasn’t even prospected it’s area completely.  Other nations also have half-again as much as the four ahead of the US.  So the West Virginia gas industry is pumping gas from a smaller reserve with a bigger straw, which must be paid for with new money.   Natural gas exports also require building gas liquefaction plants and special ships to move it across the ocean.

Then there is the mater of denial of the ill effects on our environment and people. There is much research, now over 900 articles, on the health effects of fracking.  The volume of such research doubles each year, in spite of failure of cooperation from the industry, which is not interested in verifiable facts, but in promoting it’s own narrative.

It is amazing how poor the education of many people making important decisions really is. My guess is there are few climate change deniers whose knowledge of the physics involved is at the level of a first year college student.  They don’t know enthalpy of vaporization, enthalpy of fusion, heat capacity, coefficient of expansion.  Nor do they know the Earth science of the global ocean heat conveyor, or the Hadley, Farrell and Polar cells.  You shouldn’t worry if you don’t know these terms and how they relate to global warming, unless you are writing contradictions to global warming.  You need to know how to choose science, rather than PR, however.   The science is all available to those who want to take the time to learn, but most don’t have the time required.

Very few fracking executives or midstaff understand elementary toxicology. Nor does the industry as a whole have such expertise.  And it’s well understood that any employee who is not loyal to the objectives of the firm gets the boot.  It is hard on one’s professional standing, if trained in petroleum engineering and you loose a job by being a whistle blower. CIA employees aren’t the only ones who have to “go along to get along.”

And the same applies to politicians.  As I’ve said before, they don’t have time for research or going out in the field and talking to constituents.  They have to spend their time raising money and getting re-elected.  It’s all power brokering. This results in monstrosities such as the WV Senator who is on the Senate Clean Air Committee AND “fighting to preserve coal.” In Pennsylvania they have a bill that removes liability for drillers who use acid mine drainage for fracking.

For corporations, there is little long-term view, hardly more than the next quarter or two, certainly none as long as it will take to pay off their debts.  And no depth beyond “common sense.”  It’s all about paying a dividend and keeping the stock price up.

If “ignorance is bliss,” this must be the finest hour for the hydrocarbon burning industries. They have up a “full head of steam,” but can’t see beyond the next wave.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Delegate Bonnie Brown summed it up, “We are just giving them tax breaks before we even regulate the industry.”

In the final hours of the last day of the legislative session Saturday night, SB 424, which would have increased the allowed distance between a residence and a rig, required gas inspectors to be hired by the same process as other state inspectors, and protected public water supplies, was reordered on the calendar and there was simply not enough time to deal with it. Lawmakers did, however, have time to pass SB 465, providing tax incentives for the gas drilling industry.  Included in this bill is a clause making drillers eligible for tax credits if they hire at least 75% of their work force from West Virginia.

Senator Mike Green, who opposed amendments added to SB 424 by the House of Delegates, chided the House for failing to act in a timely manner.  His comments are recorded in the Senate Journal.

Are the majority of gas industry paychecks staying in state, or are they going out-of-state to workers imported from Texas and Oklahoma? Senator Joe Manchin recently criticized the drilling industry, saying he was looking into why some West Virginia workers could not find employment with natural gas companies.

In response, Chesapeake Energy announced that it currently employs 702 West Virginia residents and has had “great success hiring a capable local work force.” Interestingly, this comes after Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake, said last week that 30% of local applicants had failed to pass a drug screening (See Frack Check post from January 23, 2011)

As part of a plan to create qualified West Virginia workers, Pierpont Community and Technical College in Fairmont, WV is providing The International Association of Drilling Contractors Rig Hand certification.  Classes start February 7 and tuition is $500 for five classes.

Click here to read the full discussion in The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register…