Pennsylvania is up against a clock to finish emissions regulations for oil and gas sites.
At risk are hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.
Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection, warning it of impending sanctions if Pennsylvania did not submit plans to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds at oil and gas sites by Dec. 16.
In June, the Environmental Quality Board approved a final rule governing VOCs at existing unconventional, fracked wells. The Department of Environmental Protection says the rule will have a co-benefit of reducing methane, a greenhouse gas up to 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
An earlier version of the rule included existing shallower, conventional wells. The Department of Environmental Protection separated the two industries in an attempt to avoid controversy and a delay of the rule.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled legislature made an agreement in 2016 to regulate the two industries separately. Conventional drilling companies had filed a preliminary lawsuit to stop the rule.
Pennsylvania adopted a methane rule for oil and gas sites in 2018, but it only applied to future wells.
Democratic state Representative Greg Vitali, who sits on the EQB, said he has yet to see a rule for conventional sites.
“I don’t have confidence they’ll be done in time at all,” he said. “To the contrary, it looks like we’re running out of time.”
DEP did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the conventional rule.
In June, DEP said it hoped to have a conventional rule for the EQB to consider before the end of the year. After EQB votes, the rule would still need approval from the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the Attorney General’s office.
The EQB, chaired by Acting DEP Secretary Ramez Ziadeh, has two meetings scheduled before the December deadline. The VOC rule is not on the agenda for the October meeting.
This story is produced in partnership with StateImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration among WESA, The Allegheny Front, WITF and WHYY.
