Wyoming may extend the stricter air quality standards that apply in the Upper Green River Basin to the rest of the state, a move that’s supported by two unlikely sides in the long debate on Wyoming air regulations: the oil and gas industry and environmental groups.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has released proposed changes to its air quality guidance on the best ways to limit emissions from new and modified sources, such as new oil and gas wells. The changes would bring the state’s rules in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards, requiring industry to use leak detection and repair equipment, for example. And it offers a more reasonable compromise on issues like on-the-ground checks for leaks. The EPA requires two checks per year. Some have sought to put boots on the ground four times per year.
“We’ve been working with [DEQ] for some time on this and feel very comfortable,” said John Robitaille, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.
The proposed guidelines, which are updated about every two years, will be reviewed by a citizen’s advisory board Sept. 11 in Casper.
There’s only one potential hitch in unity over what the state is trying to do. In its proposal, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality references the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules, a point that has caused some concern on the environmentalists’ side.
Under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has considered paring back its rules on new and modified sources of emissions.
While supportive of the state’s new proposal, groups like the Environmental Defense Fund want the language clarified to separate the state’s actions from what the feds may do.
“Wyoming has never done that in the past,” said Jon Goldstein, senior policy manager for the Environmental Defense Fund. “It’s never handcuffed itself to federal standards.”
A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality was not available by press time. Goldstein said it’s an issue that the group will bring up in public comment on the proposed changes.
Robitaille of the Petroleum Association said he didn’t think the EPA standards were likely to be taken down.
“A rule like that, I don’t see that going away,” he said. “I think there’s a tremendous number of companies in the state doing it on a voluntary basis.”
And the state always has the option to implement stronger rules than the feds, he added.
Air quality in the Jonah and Pinedale area has been considered unique in Wyoming for some time. In the gas fields of the Upper Green River Basin, operators work under a different set of rules than in other parts of the state, due in part to the bowl-shaped geography that holds in more of the volatile organic compounds, fumes from idling trucks and leaked methane from natural gas infrastructure. Environmental groups have tried to extend those protections across the state, though industry has argued against a one-size-fits-all approach.
That’s just the Wyoming regulations, which have to be at least as strict as the federal guidelines, but can be, and have been in many cases, stronger than federal rules.
On the federal side, both the Environmental Protection Agency and at times the Bureau of Land Management have regulations regarding industry and air quality in Wyoming.
The Bureau of Land Management finalized a rule in 2016 to limit methane leaks on public land, arguing that as manager of federal mineral development, the agency had the right to place restrictions on industry to catch more gas that could be sold. Industry argued that the BLM did not have that right, and that Environmental Protection Agency’s standards were sufficient. That matter is still uncertain as the BLM under the Trump administration has walked back on the standards and environmentalists have taken it to court.
Robitaille has criticized the BLM approach and those from environmental groups, such as the desire for on-the-ground checks four times a year. It’s not economic for companies, he said. The more you go out, the more things you find, which means some of those trips become repetitive and costly, he added.
“We showed them that and said you know we are already doing it with EPA, why would we change the game? It’s just going to cause confusion,” Robitaille said.
Environmental groups are calling attention to Wyoming’s reputation as an outlier on regulations, often skipping ahead with rules that are stronger than federal rules. The state has done so on mining reclamation, hydraulic fracturing regulations and others.
These air quality updates build on what the state has already successfully achieved in the Pinedale area, making sure industry is regularly checking oil and gas wells for leaks, and in turn, driving down pollution, said Goldstein of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The Pinedale region recently received an upgrade in designation at the Environmental Protection Agency, codifying that the region has been meeting air quality standards.
That wasn’t always the case. When the gas boom hit the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline, air quality degraded to the point that ground level ozone spikes were common, with smog comparable to large urban areas like Los Angeles.
Industry restrictions were put in place by the state that were in turn implemented up by federal agencies.
Wyoming has this long history of being ahead on regulations, said Goldstein. Meanwhile, industry is moving in this direction too, he said.
“I think as time goes by, more and more leading oil and gas producers are stepping up and doing these things, because they make sense,” he said.
The state updates are also supported by the Wyoming Outdoor Council, which recently published a report calling for Wyoming to implement stronger standards statewide to save taxpayer revenue.
Dustin Bleizeffer, a spokesman for the council and former energy journalist in Wyoming, said the income from capturing gas that would be lost through leaks is vital to communities, particularly in the up-and-coming oil and gas plays like the Powder River Basin.
“Every dollar counts when there is an increase in drilling, especially if there is a drilling boom, because the demand for services skyrocket before the revenue comes in,” he said.
