On Monday, Texas’s Second District Court of Appeals partially affirmed a District Court order allowing Range Resources Corporation’s (“Range”) defamation and business disparagement claims against a landowner to proceed. A copy of the court’s opinion is available here. This is the latest development in a case that gained notoriety when a video purporting to show… Continue Reading
Category Archives: U.S. EPA
Subscribe to U.S. EPA RSS FeedUSEPA Proposes Updates To Oil And Gas Air Rules For Storage Tanks
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPATwo months ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) requested that a federal judge stay the lawsuits challenging its oil and gas air rule revisions to allow the agency to revisit controversial aspects of the rules. On Friday, April 12, USEPA published proposed rules revising its prior VOC performance standards for storage tanks used in crude oil and natural gas… Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Announces Peer Review Panel For Hydraulic Fracturing Study
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPA, WaterOn Monday, March 25, the USEPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) announced that it has formed an independent body of experts to peer-review the agency’s ongoing hydraulic fracturing research. Specifically, the Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel (Panel) will review USEPA’s Congressionally-mandated draft report from its national study on any potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. That… Continue Reading
Virginia AG: Localities Cannot Ban Gas Drilling Through Zoning
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, U.S. EPA, Virginia, WaterContinuing on this blog’s ongoing exploration of the intersection of state and local regulation of shale drilling (see last week’s post here, as well as prior posts here and here), several weeks ago Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued an advisory opinion finding that state oil and gas law effectively prevents localities from barring drilling for… Continue Reading
EPA To Revisit Oil and Gas Air Rules, Requests Stay Of Suit Challenging Regulations
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, Legislative, U.S. EPATwo weeks ago we reported that Texas withdrew from a multi-party lawsuit challenging USEPA’s new air pollution standards regulating the oil and gas industry (including hydraulic fracturing operations). The suit is now led by industry petitioners. On January 16, 2013, six days after Texas’s withdrawal, USEPA filed an unopposed motion asking the Circuit Court for the… Continue Reading
Texas Withdraws From Federal Challenge To USEPA’s Air Standards For Oil And Gas
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, Texas, U.S. EPAOn January 10, 2013, the State of Texas and two of its agencies (the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) filed a joint motion in the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to voluntarily dismiss their challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new air pollution standards regulating… Continue Reading
EPA Extends Comment Period On Pavillion Groundwater Revised Report
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPA, WaterIn 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) began investigating claims of groundwater contamination in private drinking water wells in and around Pavillion, Wyoming. In a Draft Report issued in December of 2011, the EPA reported that samples taken from an aquifer near a Pavillion gas field contained chemicals associated with hydraulic fracturing fluids. Samples… Continue Reading
Seven States File Notice of Intent To Sue USEPA Over Methane Emission Standards
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, New York, U.S. EPAOn December 11, 2012, a group of seven states led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneidermann notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of their intent to sue the agency. The states–Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont–claim that EPA failed to address methane emissions standards for the oil and gas… Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Provides Update On Study of Hydraulic Fracturing’s Water Impacts
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPA, WaterOn Friday, December 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an initial progress report on its ongoing study to “better understand any potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources.” By way of background, in 2009 the House of Representatives by resolution requested that EPA conduct this study, which the agency then commenced in 2011. … Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Issues Final Air Emissions Rules For Gas Production Wells
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAEarlier today, U.S. EPA published in the Federal Register its final regulations revising the NSPS and NESHAP for the Oil & Natural Gas Production source category (40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subparts KKK, LLL, and OOOO). We previously discussed the substance of the draft rules EPA published on April 17, 2012. EPA’s overview fact sheet, its summaries… Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Concludes Dimock Groundwater Is Safe
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, Pennsylvania, U.S. EPALast week U.S. EPA Region 3 announced that it had completed its regimen of groundwater testing for private drinking water wells of Dimock, Pennsylvania, and found no evidence of contamination that would justify further action. In a July 25 press release, Region 3 stated that it was stopping groundwater testing for Dimock residents and would… Continue Reading
API-ANGA Study Critiques EPA Plan for Studying Hydraulic Fracturing’s Effects on Drinking Water
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAA recently-released study questions key portions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to study the potential relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water contamination. The study, released on July 10, 2012 by the Battelle Memorial Institute and commissioned by America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API), was designed… Continue Reading
EPA Extends Comment Period on Diesel Fracturing Guidance
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAOn May 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register a draft document titled Permitting Guidance for Oil and Gas Hydraulic Fracturing Activities Using Diesel Fuels. The draft document is intended for EPA permit writers, and contains Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class II permitting guidance for oil and gas hydraulic fracturing… Continue Reading
USEPA Region 3: Data Confirms Dimock, PA Groundwater Safe
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAOn May 11, 2012, USEPA Region 3 released additional and expanded test results from samples of well water in Dimock, Pennsylvania. Consistent with its three sets of prior findings, which we previously discussed, Region 3 found no samples exceeding federal drinking water standards for any of a wide range of contaminants. Roy Seneca, speaking for… Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Issues Air Emission Rules for Oil and Natural Gas Industry
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAOn April 17, 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued final regulations revising the NSPS and NESHAP for the Oil & Natural Gas Production source category (40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subparts KKK and LLL). As we described earlier this month, USEPA issued the proposed rules on August 23, 2011 and thereafter extended the timeframe for promulgating… Continue Reading
U.S. EPA Further Delays CAA Emissions Rules for Oil and Gas Industry
Posted in Air Emissions, U.S. EPAThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) announced on Monday, April 2 that it is delaying for two weeks its upcoming package of final rules that will govern air emissions in the oil and gas sector. The final rules are now due to be released by April 17, per a stipulation between USEPA and environmental groups filed Monday… Continue Reading
USEPA Testing of Dimock, PA Well Water Finds No Contamination
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, U.S. EPAThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) disclosed in a March 15, 2012 statement that samples of well water at 11 homes in Dimock, Pennsylvania (where residents claim to have suffered health problems from shale drilling operations) “did not show levels of contamination that could present a health concern.” In mid-January, USEPA Region 3 announced that… Continue Reading