Regulations

Less than a week after they were implemented, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has filed a lawsuit targeting key provisions of new regulations for shale drillers, representing the first time the organization has taken such a wide-ranging legal action against the state and its Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Shale gas development in western Maryland returned to the realm of possibility on Monday after regulators with the state Department of the Environment (MDE) met a key deadline and proposed rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to a panel of state lawmakers.

Five years after it began drafting an overhaul of environmental regulations for shale gas drillers, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) expects to publish the new rules in the state bulletin Oct. 8 when they are to finally go into effect, according to a top agency official.

The costs associated with implementing three new final rules by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) governing methane emissions from oil and gas industry sources would outweigh any benefits, industry supporters told a House panel on Thursday.

Owner/operator Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has indicated its shuttered 86 Bcf Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field may reopen this year, but most of the 114 storage wells still await final testing, officials said.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s (AG) office has completed its review of a comprehensive package of environmental regulations for the state’s unconventional shale producers, bringing the rules one step closer to implementation.

The Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists who want stricter U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of oil/natural gas industry waste.

It isn’t clear when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will begin again with an overhaul of environmental regulations for the state’s ailing conventional industry after the General Assembly approved legislation last month to scrap a package that took more than five years to draft.

The Pennsylvania Senate on Monday passed a bill that would roll back some of the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) recently-approved regulations for unconventional oil and natural gas drilling.