Polling Shows Americans Support Environmental Enforcement And Clean Energy
January 26, 2015
Polling Shows Americans Support Environmental Enforcement And Clean Energy.
UNCONVENTIONAL OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT Key Environmental and Public Health Requirements
August 10, 2014
www.gao.gov/assets/650/647782.pdf.
September 2012
GAO-12-874
United States Government Accountability Office
GAOUnited States Government Accountability Office
Highlights of GAO-12-874, a report to congressional requesters
summary chart on pg 51 of regulatory exemptions for O and G development
September 2012
UNCONVENTIONAL OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT
Key Environmental and Public Health Requirements
Why GAO Did This Study
Technological improvements have
allowed the extraction of oil and natural
gas from onshore unconventional
reservoirs such as shale, tight
sandstone, and coalbed methane
formations. Specifically, advances in
horizontal drilling techniques combined
with hydraulic fracturing (pumping
water, sand, and chemicals into wells
to fracture underground rock
formations and allow oil or gas to flow)
have increased domestic development
of oil and natural gas from these
unconventional reservoirs. The
increase in such development has
raised concerns about potential
environmental and public health effects
and whether existing federal and state
environmental and public health
requirements are adequate.
GAO was asked to review
environmental and public health
requirements for unconventional oil
and gas development and (1) describe
federal requirements; (2) describe
state requirements; (3) describe
additional requirements that apply on
federal lands; and (4) identify
challenges, if any, that federal and
state agencies reported facing in
regulating oil and gas development
from unconventional reservoirs. GAO
identified and analyzed federal laws,
state laws in six selected states
(Colorado, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming),
and interviewed federal and state
officials and representatives from
industry, environmental, and public
health organizations.
GAO is not making recommendations.
In commenting on the report, agencies
provided information on recent
regulatory activities and technical
comments.
What GAO Found
As with conventional oil and gas development, requirements from eight federal
environmental and public health laws apply to unconventional oil and gas
development. For example, the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates discharges of
pollutants into surface waters. Among other things, CWA requires oil and gas
well site operators to obtain permits for discharges of produced water—which
includes fluids used for hydraulic fracturing, as well as water that occurs naturally
in oil- or gas-bearing formations—to surface waters. In addition, the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) governs the management and disposal
of hazardous wastes, among other things. However, key exemptions or
limitations in regulatory coverage affect the applicability of six of these
environmental and public health laws. For example, CWA also generally
regulates stormwater discharges by requiring that facilities associated with
industrial and construction activities get permits, but the law and its regulations
largely exempt oil and gas well sites. In addition, oil and gas exploration and
production wastes are exempt from RCRA hazardous waste requirements based
on a regulatory determination made by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in 1988. EPA generally retains its authorities under federal environmental
and public health laws to respond to environmental contamination.
All six states in GAO’s review implement additional requirements governing
activities associated with oil and gas development and have updated some
aspects of their requirements in recent years. For example, all six states have
requirements related to how wells are to be drilled and how casing—steel pipe
within the well—is to be installed and cemented in place, though the specifics of
their requirements vary. The states also have requirements related to well site
selection and preparation, which may include baseline testing of water wells
before drilling or stormwater management.
Oil and gas development on federal lands must comply with applicable federal
environmental and state laws, as well as additional requirements. These
requirements are the same for conventional and unconventional oil and gas
development. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees oil and gas
development on approximately 700 million subsurface acres. BLM regulations for
leases and permits govern similar types of activities as state requirements, such
as requirements for how operators drill the well and install casing. BLM recently
proposed new regulations for hydraulic fracturing of wells on public lands.
Federal and state agencies reported several challenges in regulating oil and gas
development from unconventional reservoirs. EPA officials reported that
conducting inspection and enforcement activities and having limited legal
authorities are challenges. For example, conducting inspection and enforcement
activities is challenging due to limited information, such as data on groundwater
quality prior to drilling. EPA officials also said that the exclusion of exploration
and production waste from hazardous waste regulations under RCRA
significantly limits EPA’s role in regulating these wastes. In addition, BLM and
state officials reported that hiring and retaining staff and educating the public are
challenges. For example, officials from several states and BLM said that retaining
employees is difficult because qualified staff are frequently offered more money
for private sector positions within the oil and gas industry.
View GAO-12-874. For more information,
contact David C. Trimble at (202) 512-3841 or
trimbled@gao.gov. Page i GAO-12-874 Unconventional Oil and Gas Development
Letter 1
summary chart on pdf pg 51 (p. 44 printed text) of regulatory exemptions for O and G development
;
Table 2: Exemptions or Limitations in Regulatory Coverage for the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Industry in Six
Environmental Laws
Law Description of exemption or limitation in regulatory coverage Source
Type of program related to
exemption or limitation in
regulatory coverage
Preventive Response
SDWA Hydraulic fracturing with fluids other than diesel fuel does not require a
UIC permit.
Statutory (2005) X
CWA Federal stormwater permits are not required for uncontaminated
stormwater at oil and gas construction sites or at oil and gas well sites.
Statutory (1987,
2005) X
CAA Emissions of hazardous air pollutants from oil and gas wells and their
associated equipment may not be aggregated together or with those of
pipeline compressors or pump stations to determine whether they are
a major source.
Statutory (1990)
X
In the Risk Management Program, many naturally-occurring
hydrocarbons in oil and gas are not included in the threshold
determination of whether a facility should be regulated.
Regulatory/EPA
decision (1988) X
RCRA Oil and gas exploration and production wastes are not regulated as
hazardous waste.
Regulatory/EPA
decision (1988) X
CERCLA Liability and reporting provisions do not apply to injections of fluids
authorized by state law for production, enhanced recovery, or
produced water.
Statutory (1980)
X
EPCRA Oil and gas well operations are not required to report releases of listed
chemicals to the TRI.
Regulatory/EPA
decision (1997) X
Source: GAO.
Note: In some cases, states may have requirements in these areas. State requirements are
discussed in the next section of this report.
B
Unconventional Gas in Poland – Law, Environment and Society
January 1, 2014
www.czystaenergia.org.pl/publikacje/czysta_energia/FCE report 2013 small_14032013a.pdf.
Unconventional Gas in Poland –
Law, Environment and Society 2013
Streamlining SEQR
December 18, 2013
Streamlining SEQR
How to Reform New York’s “Environmental” Planning Law
by: E.J. McMahon and Michael Wright
Complete report in PDF format
December 16, 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Major residential, commercial and industrial developments throughout the country are subject to an array of federal and state laws designed to protect the environment, buttressed nearly everywhere by local land-use regulations addressing the community impacts of such projects.
In New York, however, these regulations are wrapped in the added red tape of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR.
In this, as in so many areas of regulatory policy, the Empire State is an outlier. Less than one-third of all states have similarly comprehensive environmental review statutes —and fewer have laws as broadly applicable as New York’s SEQR.
Nearly 40 years after its enactment, can SEQR be reformed to strike a better balance between environmental protection and economic growth? That’s a crucial question when much of New York, especially upstate, is suffering from what could be described as a severe development deficit.
While it would be difficult to quantify SEQR’s role in discouraging investment and job creation in New York, the added regulatory imposition certainly does little to expedite the building of new homes, businesses, factories and civic facilities. As currently written and interpreted, SEQR can be exploited to produce costly delays and uncertainty for the kind of job-creating projects New York desperately needs. Several of the state’s regional economic development councils have identified SEQR as an obstacle to development.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has responded to these complaints by allowing his state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to float proposed rule changes designed to improve SEQR in response to years of complaints from private-sector developers. DEC says it is aiming to make the process more efficient and predictable “without sacrificing meaningful environmental review,” but the ideas it is considering don’t go far enough to achieve this goal.
This paper suggests that further changes are needed to truly streamline SEQR. At a minimum, the law should be revised to:
- Reduce the potential for undue delays by imposing hard deadlines and incentives to ensure the process can be completed within a year.
- Mandate “scoping” of environmental impacts at the first stage in the SEQR review process, but also more tightly restrict the introduction of new issues by lead agencies later in the process.
- Eliminate the law’s reference to “community and neighborhood character” as an aspect of the broadly defined environment potentially affected by projects, since the concept already is defined by local planning and zoning laws.
Industry groups have proposed other, more specific changes that also deserve enactment as part of any meaningful SEQR reform process.
1. ORIGINS AND BACKGROUND
The peak of America’s postwar economic boom in the 1960s coincided with a growing public awareness of the increasingly troubling environmental impacts of untrammelled industrial, commercial and residential development.
The health hazards of air pollution in major metropolitan areas had been highlighted by incidents such as a four-day temperature inversion blamed for dozens of deaths in New York City in 1965. Water pollution was also a serious problem; in the nation’s industrial heartland, portions of the Great Lakes were literally dying— becoming uninhabitable by fish or plant life. Stretches of storied major waterways such as the Hudson River had become seriously polluted. During the same period, perceived assaults on the built environment of neighborhoods and communities had led to a grassroots backlash against major highway expansion projects in some cities.
These concerns led to the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970. NEPA required federal agencies to prepare assessments and impact statements of proposed major projects and policy changes affecting the “human environment,” broadly defined to include both “the natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with that environment.”1
NEPA would be the primary model for laws in states including New York, whose State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) was enacted in 1975.
While NEPA applies only to federal executive branch agencies, SEQR applies to the actions of state and local agencies in New York. In relatively rare cases where the two jurisdictions overlap, the respective reviews can be coordinated, so that the impact statement required by NEPA can be used to fulfill obligations under SEQR.2
It’s important to note that these laws were not designed as government’s primary line of defense against pollution—a purpose served by other statutes and regulations largely adopted after NEPA in the 1970s.3
NEPA’s overarching goals extend well beyond protecting the natural ecology of air, water, plants and animals to encompass the regulation of “aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health [impacts], whether direct, indirect, or cumulative.”4 In similarly broad language, SEQR defines environmental factors to also include “noise, resources of agricultural, archeological, historic or aesthetic significance, existing patterns of population concentration, distribution or growth.”5
New York’s law goes a big step further by also regulating potential impacts on “existing community or neighborhood character”—an amorphous concept that, in some cases, has been construed broadly enough to block projects otherwise permissible under existing local land-use ordinances.6
NEPA and SEQR also differ in several other significant respects.
Federal courts have determined that NEPA mandates for federal agencies are “essentially procedural.”7 In other words, the law’s principal effect is to describe the process federal agencies must follow to implement a major new policy or project—but not to shape outcomes consistent with its lofty aims.8
New York’s SEQR, by contrast, can be used to force changes to “mitigate” environmental impacts—not only dictating how a project is built, but effectively deciding whether it gets built at all. Perhaps even more importantly, SEQR requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) if the project “may” cause a significant adverse environmental impact, whereas NEPA effectively requires an EIS only if a proposed action will “significantly affect the quality of the human environment.”9 This further expands the scope of actions covered by the state law. And before a project can win final approval, SEQR requires that adverse environmental impacts be “minimized to the maximum extent practicable.”10
SEQR’s broader scope and its requirement for “maximum extent practicable” mitigation as a condition for potential approval make it more expansive and stringent than its federal counterpart, NEPA; indeed, as will be shown below, it is among the most expansive and stringent laws of its type in any state.
Dr. Robert (Bob) Myers’ Website
April 29, 2012
Dr. Robert (Bob) Myers’ Website.
The Environmental Dangers of
Hydro-Fracturing the Marcellus Shale
by Robert Myers, Ph.D. (Lock Haven University)
GDACC 
