DENVER Oil and gas companies asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to delay new rules that would curb air pollution from wells.
The EPA is proposing the tougher standards as part of a settlement in a lawsuit by the San Juan Citizens Alliance and WildEarth Guardians. The new rules are set to take effect Feb. 28, 2012.
EPA officials got an earful from both sides at a Wednesday hearing in Denver that was expected to last at least eight hours. The EPAs regional administrator, Jim Martin, talked up the proposed rules before the hearing began.
Its an important national rule that represents a significant step forward in our strategy to protect the public from the effects of harmful air pollution, Martin said.
The four new rules would cover emissions and toxic pollution from pipelines, compressors and storage tanks, as well as regulating for the first time the 25,000 wells that are hydraulically fractured each year.
Fracking involves pumping water, chemicals and sand into the ground to increase gas flow. According to the EPA, some of the worst air pollution happens during the fracking process, when frack fluids, water and gas come to the surface quickly.
Spencer Kimball of Western Energy Alliance, an advocacy group for gas companies, said the rules would drag down his industry.
The red tape required by this rule represents a huge administrative burden and expansion of government data collection without sufficient environmental benefit to justify it, Kimball said.
Kimball and other people from the industry disputed the EPAs assertion that the rules would actually save companies $30 million a year by capturing some of the methane that currently is vented into the air.
The EPA expects the rules would cut yearly emissions of methane a potent greenhouse gas by the equivalent of 65 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or less than 1 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
The rules also should reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds, which form ozone, by 95 percent, according to the EPA.
The changes will help people who live near gas facilities and complain of irritating odors, said Bruce Baizel of Durango, an attorney for Earthworks.
We are confident that an industry which has figured out horizontal drilling techniques and the thousands of versions of hydraulic fracturing chemical cocktails which have unlocked access to shale gas will also be able to find a way to comply with these rules while remaining highly profitable, Baizel said.
But the rules should be expanded to cover all existing facilities, not just wells that are newly drilled or fracked, he said.
About 20 anti-fracking activists protested in front of the Colorado Convention Center, where the meeting was held. They carried signs that said Ban Fracking Now and Fracking = Domestic Terrorism.
Reach Joe Hanel at [email protected].
