StateImpact
By Amy Sisk
April 23, 2019
While Pennsylvania officials weigh how to regulate emissions from natural gas well sites, a panel of state senators on Tuesday heard how leak detection technology is advancing and creating more jobs.
Several members of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee met in Pittsburgh for a hearing on methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Read morePennsylvania Capital-Star
By Elizabeth Hardison
April 23, 2019
Panelists at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on Tuesday slammed the state’s proposed regulations on methane gas, and called on state lawmakers to let the Department of Environmental Protection exercise more regulatory authority.
The hearing at the Teamster Temple in Pittsburgh brought environmental policymakers and advocates together to discuss methane emissions across Pennsylvania, including a new Wolf administration proposal regulating volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a smog-producing chemical produced in gas drilling.
Read morePennsylvania Capital-Star
By Elizabeth Hardison
April 12, 2019
A state advisory committee voted Thursday to advance a new regulation on Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry proposed by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, despite concerns among environmental groups that it does not do enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Andrew Williams, who testified on the proposal on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, confirmed the vote by an advisory committee within the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The matter now goes to the state’s Environmental Quality Board, whose approval can initiate the months-long process of advancing the rule into state law.
The proposed rule would regulate volatile organic compounds, emissions that can form smog and harm human respiratory systems. Environmental groups, however, say the rule should be expanded to target methane — a component of natural gas that contributes to climate change.
Read moreAssociated Press
By Michael Rubinkam
April 10, 2019
The administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is pushing a regulation to control methane emissions from existing natural gas facilities that doesn’t directly target the potent greenhouse gas, raising alarm among environmental groups.
Instead, the proposed rule sets limits on smog-forming volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, emitted by Pennsylvania’s enormous gas industry, with methane reduction listed as a “co-benefit.” The rule, which is working its way through the regulatory process, doesn’t establish specific emissions standards for methane, the primary component of natural gas and a key contributor to climate change.
Read moreWITF
By Marc Levy/The Associated Press
January 8, 2019
(Harrisburg) -- Gov. Tom Wolf is stepping up the fight against climate change and setting targets to slash Pennsylvania's greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades in a heavily populated and fossil fuel-rich state that has long been one of the nation's biggest polluters.
Wolf, a Democrat, on Tuesday issued an executive order that commits his administration to meeting certain targets, putting the state in a league with what the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions says are 20 other states that already set targets.
Read moreStateImpact
By Amy Sisk
December 13, 2018
Pennsylvania environmental officials have come out with a plan to reduce leaks from thousands of the state’s oil and gas wells.
The proposal is part of Gov. Tom Wolf’s strategy announced in 2016 to reduce methane emissions. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, sometimes leaks from wells and other natural gas components.
The draft plan released by the Department of Environmental Protection would beef up leak detection and require, in some cases, better controls to prevent emissions from escaping at wells and other gas facilities.
Read morePittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Laura Legere
December 12, 2018
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed rules for cutting smog-forming compounds are based on Obama-era guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the Trump administration is proposing to withdraw.
The new state proposal is designed to curb direct emissions and leaks of volatile organic compounds from older well sites, storage tanks and other oil and gas facilities that aren’t covered by air pollution rules that DEP adopted earlier this year.
Associated Press
By Marc Levy
December 13, 2018
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is aiming to curb air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from its vast natural gas exploration fields, with the governor’s administration proposing new regulations Thursday even as the Trump administration moves to relax federal requirements.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration brought the proposal to a technical review committee, the first step in what could be a two- to three-year process spurred by a 2016 federal requirement that applies to states and areas that don’t meet certain clean air standards.
Read moreE&E News
By Mike Lee
December 11, 2018
A package of proposed regulations would lower methane and other emission from existing oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, in Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's second effort to reduce the air impacts of the state's booming shale drilling industry.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection finalized a permitting system last summer to control emissions from new wells (Energywire, June 8).
The move comes as the Trump administration is proposing a rollback on regulations from the oil and gas sector. Pennsylvania is the second-biggest gas-producing state in the country.
Read moreWITF
By Reid Frazier
October 25, 2018
At an oil and gas conference in Pittsburgh Wednesday, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler touted the Trump administration's moves to roll back over 70 environmental regulations, telling the crowd the rollbacks will make America's air and water cleaner while keeping the economy booming.
In a bullet-point laden speech before the Shale Insight conference, Wheeler reeled off a list of EPA initiatives to cut down on regulations on the coal and oil and gas industries, and recited data showing an improving environmental picture in the U.S.
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