FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2015

Contact:
Kelsey Robinson, (512) 691-3404, krobinson@edf.org
Chris Merrill, (307) 349-7288, chris@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org

 

Bold New Rule Cuts Oil and Gas Air Pollution in Wyoming

To improve regional air quality, state leaders target pollution at existing oil and gas sources

PINEDALE – The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council today approved a new rule to reduce pollution from oil and gas activity and improve air quality in the state’s Upper Green River Basin.

“This is a landmark day for clean air in Wyoming, which joins a select group of leading states who are tackling air pollution from existing oil and gas sources,” said Jon Goldstein, Senior Policy Manager at Environmental Defense Fund. “. Governor Mead, the Environmental Quality Council, and the Department of Environmental Quality deserve praise for a strong, fair, and sensible set of requirements that will significantly reduce air pollution in the Upper Green River Basin and better protect the health of local residents.”

As oil and gas activity in this region of Wyoming has expanded, so too have levels of unhealthy smog. These pollution levels caused the area to fall out of compliance with federal ozone standards. The rule approved today is one of only a few across the country that require operators to apply pollution controls not only on new wells and compressor stations, but also to retrofit old equipment. These cost-effective strategies received support from conservation groups, energy companies and local residents across the region.

“This new rule will protect the people who live and work in the Pinedale area,” said Bruce Pendery, Chief Legal Counsel with the Wyoming Outdoor Council. “This community has waited a long time for the state to get this pollution under control. The measures approved today should go a long way toward accomplishing that goal and protecting public health. None of this would have been possible without local citizen involvement and a general willingness on the part of all parties involved to collaborate and come up with a solution that just about everyone could agree on.”

This EQC’s decision underlines Wyoming’s role as a leader in developing solutions to the risks posed by oil and gas development

“This rule reflects a strong, Wyoming-developed solution,” Goldstein said. “This decision can form the template for better statewide controls on both new and existing sources of pollution as oil and gas development dramatically increases in new parts of the state.”

###

 

Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading international nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on our Energy Exchange blog, Twitter and Facebook.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council (website) is Wyoming’s oldest independent conservation organization. We’ve worked for more than four decades to protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life for future generations.

 

Show your support for proposed air pollution controls that will help protect people who live and work in the Pinedale area.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is set to finalize the state’s updated setback rules tomorrow, April 14th. The proposed rule suggests an increase of only 150 feet from the current 350-foot requirement. In the Casper Star-Tribune on Sunday, April 12, Environmental Quality Advocate Amber Wilson outlined a strong argument for the state to increase the setback distance beyond the proposed 500 feet and to include more specific best practices to protect public health and safety.

As the state finalizes new setback rules, which will help regulate how closely oil and gas development can occur to homes, I want to address some assertions made in a recent op-ed by John Robitaille of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. In particular, I would like to address the argument that a larger setback than the proposed 150-foot increase would create unmanageable problems for landowners and harm an important industry that supports our state economy.

First, industry representatives have often said that they want to ensure the safety of our communities. We believe them. But history tells us that not all operators approach development with the same level of care, and because of this, reasonable rules are necessary to ensure that all developers are accountable to that promise. That’s why we believe the state should do better than the currently proposed 150-foot increase to the existing setback rule.

We all benefit from oil and gas development, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive as a community to achieve better practices. I was born and raised in southwest Wyoming and graduated from the University of Wyoming. I’m grateful for the economic benefits oil and gas development brings to our state, but I also recognize we can be grateful and still ask for common sense approaches to developing oil and gas that protect people as much as they do access to the resource.

The state’s current 350-foot setback rule was established when well pads were much smaller and the equipment and materials that occupied them, less invasive. We have all seen today’s oil and gas fields, with 10- and sometimes even 20-acre well pads, where full-scale industrial operations are taking place, and where 10 or 20 wells can be drilled from the same pad. The current proposal for setbacks from homes, which industry and the Petroleum Association of Wyoming support, is 500 feet. And that’s measured from the wellhead(s), not the edge of the well pad.

Mr. Robitaille suggested that a setback requirement larger than 500 feet would remove flexibility, impose upon landowner rights, and end opportunities for negotiation between landowners and drillers. This is simply not true. Both the current and proposed rules state that the setback distance can be “increased or decreased for good cause.” We support good cause variances that allow flexibility and acknowledge landowner rights and operator’s mineral rights. These variances open the door for negotiation between the parties.

An even more elegant and common sense solution, from our perspective, would call for reduced flaring and improved leak detection and repair inspections on wells that are drilled within a quarter mile of residences and workplaces. This would address waste, as well as public health and safety concerns.

On that note, another misleading statement was that flaring is necessary for the protection of onsite employees. This is only part of the story. The kind of flaring that is done during drilling or during an emergency is indeed necessary and important as it protects workers and anybody else nearby. But there is another kind of flaring — the long-term kind — that the Wyoming Outdoor Council would like to see reduced. Flaring for safety should not be confused with wasteful flaring that is done for expediency’s sake. After a well is drilled and completed and is in production, companies can and should be required to capture natural gas, and either use that valuable resource on-site for power or send it to market. Companies should not be allowed to waste billions of cubic feet of our nation’s natural gas over the course of months and years while an oil well is in production—simply so these companies can defer the hassle of planning ahead, paying severance taxes, and conserving an important, non-renewable resource.

We are all part of a tight-knit community in this state. It’s important that we treat each other as the neighbors that we are. This involves respect, both for landowner and mineral rights, clean air and water, a safe backyard playground and a productive hay field. Let’s be the state we know we can be: one that respects economic benefits while using common sense to guide how close a well pad can be to our homes. Good fences make good neighbors; so do good setbacks.

You have two great opportunities to speak up for the Upper Green River Basin and support proposed air pollution controls that will help protect people who live and work in the Pinedale area.

Winter Ozone Open House
Tuesday, December 9, 6-8 p.m.
Lovatt Room, Sublette County Library
155 South Tyler Ave., Pinedale, WY

Wyoming Air Quality Advisory Board Meeting
Wednesday, December 10, 9 a.m.
Lovatt Room, Sublette County Library
155 South Tyler Ave., Pinedale, WY

We hope you’ll come out and make sure your voice is heard!

Background and details:

In recent months, the state has been considering some common sense and generally strong pollution controls for oil and gas development in the Upper Green River Basin.

These proposed measures, if approved, would unquestionably reduce dangerous air pollution from what are known as “existing sources”–the pumps, compressors, and other oil and gas equipment that is already in place and in operation around Pinedale.

Wyoming Outdoor Council members know that we’ve worked long and hard, along with many others, to get the word out about this area’s dangerous ozone pollution. And that we’ve also helped provide the state with a broad range of important technical and practical input–advocating key pollution controls, such as “leak detection and repair,” that will help protect the public health.

It has been an important effort, and one that we’re proud of. While we won’t get everything we’ve asked for, if the draft rule is adopted, we’ll have gotten a lot.

This proposed approach of “leak detection and repair” has proven especially effective in other places when it comes to controlling the emissions that can cause serious air pollution problems including ground-level ozone. It also helps to significantly reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially natural gas. And, of course, fixing leaks captures a marketable, taxable product that would otherwise be wasted. These are reasonable, cost-effective measures.

While the rule can still be improved, it’s also important for the health and quality of life of the communities in the Upper Green that the proposed pollution controls be adopted as soon as possible.

What can you do?

Help us convince the Air Quality Advisory Board that it should recommend these proposed pollution controls to the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council. Once we achieve that, improvements can still be made, but more importantly the new rule can be implemented as quickly as possible.

Here are two changes to the proposal that we are recommending:

• Expand requirements for leak detection and repair to all emission sources, including pneumatic controllers and pumps.
• Change the threshold for leak detection and repair from facilities emitting four tons of volatile organic compounds per year to two tons. This would require a great many more existing polluters to reduce emissions and it would thus result in a significant reduction in the amount of harmful pollutants emitted into the air we breathe.

We hope you’ll be able to attend one of the above meetings and ask the Air Quality Advisory Board to send this proposed new rule to the Environmental Quality Council for approval. That way the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality can begin implementing these important changes as quickly as possible. Please be sure to let us know if you have any questions!