American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015 - 112

ConventionSection: Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association
Winter Meeting
Slagel says the association wants to
remain optimistic about economic and
legislative conditions, but the winter
meeting will accept that the underlying
currents are not as favorable as in previous
years and PIOGA members need to hear
about ways to deal with tough economic
times.
The winter meeting will return to the
Seven Springs Mountain Resort, and
D'Amico says the facility's popularity
with PIOGA members has made the
event's location an easy decision.
Legislative and regulatory issues on
both the federal and state levels dominate
the meeting agenda, he says, with other
presentations devoted to public education
and relations, safety awareness, and local
ordinances. In a new feature, D'Amico
says the association is adding a products
and service showcase. This will allow
service and supply companies the opportunity to demonstrate their offerings to
association members.
Moody says presentations will cover
what local ordinances can lawfully regulate
with respect to industry operations as a
result of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
decision that overturned the statute's municipal pre-emption provisions of Act 13.
The meeting also will address the escalation of problems related to the nationwide
efforts of a Pennsylvania-based environmental rights organization, the Community
Environmental Legal Defense Fund, to
persuade local government officials to
adopt so-called community bill-of-rights
ordinances, he says.
"These ordinances are blatantly unconstitutional on so many levels, yet
CELDF continues to work for their adoption," Moody declares. "In Pennsylvania,
the rationale for these ordinances has
been soundly rejected by the Commonwealth Court."
In addition to the educational opportunities, D'Amico says the winter meeting
will offer its share of recreational events.
The meeting opens on Monday, Feb. 23,
with a sporting clays competition, and
closes the Tuesday session with an evening
Monte Carlo event free to conference attendees.
"It is hard to be optimistic, but I think
everyone needs to be realistic. The association wants all its members to know
what is on the horizon. Networking at
the meeting is as important as ever,"

Slagel reflects. "We have a lot of things
to talk about at the meeting. PIOGA
members need to know what the organization has been doing for them during

the past year, and ask themselves what
happens if they do not have PIOGA working on their behalf."
Ì

Conventional Well Operators
Could See Some Act 13 Relief
WEXFORD, PA.-Regulatory burdens
and commodity prices seem to be following divergent courses, with oil and
gas operators seeing increasing numbers
of tougher state and federal rules even as
markets push down the prices for their
production. One bright spot for some in
the Pennsylvania industry is the possibility
that conventional well operators' regulatory
burdens may ease in comparison with
their unconventional peers.
Speaking in advance of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association's
winter meeting, to be held Feb. 24-25 at
the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in
Champion, Pa., association President Lou
D'Amico warns things are not likely to
improve for unconventional producers in
the near term.
"The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources
have been slow to address many of the
concerns of the oil and gas industry," he
asserts.
The industry is accommodating most
of the demands imposed by Act 13, the
wide-ranging oil and gas statutory overhaul
enacted in 2012, however, many of the
environmental requirements contained in
Chapter 78 are yet to be finalized, assesses
PIOGA chairman Gary Slagel.
"The revised Chapter 78 rules have
been two years in the making, and they
may not be finalized until early 2016 "
says Slagel, a government affairs specialist
with Steptoe & Johnson in Canonsburg,
Pa. "There has been considerable-but in
many ways unsatisfactory-back and forth
on the proposed rules. These proposed
rules so far exceed, in many ways, the
basic mandates of Act 13."
To translate the legislative language
of Act 13 into operational guidelines, the
Department of Environmental Protection
has revised many of the drilling regulations
in Chapter 78. Slagel points out a number
of the rewritten proposed rules, including
environmental standards that are meant
for horizontally drilled shale wells, were

112 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

also viewed as applying to conventional
well operations. To limit those impacts,
PIOGA pushed for regulatory relief, advancing the argument that conventional
wells had been operating in Pennsylvania
for more than 150 years, and their size,
impact and economics did not justify inclusion in the new regulatory scheme.
In addition to Act 13's regulatory
reach, operators face a host of local operational issues. Slagel points to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that
overturned the statute's municipal preemption provision as merely one example.
"The industry is back to dealing with individual municipalities on a one-to-one
basis as they go through the exercise of
deciding how they will try to regulate
natural gas development within their borders. Producers are now beginning to
feel the full impact of Act 13," he says.
Pennsylvania's oil and gas community
also must brace for changes coming from
the new governor's team. Tom Wolf, the
Democrat who denied Republican Tom
Corbett a second term, promised a host
of changes during the campaign, D'Amico
recounts. Wolf said he did not support
Act 13's restrictions on local municipalities' anti-oil-and-gas zoning ordinances,
pushed for a 5 percent severance tax on
shale gas extraction and more stringent
control of shale gas development, and
promised to reverse Corbett's plans to
allow leasing on state lands, D'Amico
recalls.
PIOGA General Counsel Kevin Moody
adds that the January 2015 Commonwealth
Court decision upholding the legislature's
authority to put money from leasing state
lands into the General Fund also held
that the Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources had the exclusive authority to decide whether to lease state
lands. "So, Governor Wolf cannot legally
do what he said he would do, even after
the court decision," he says.
However, as Wolf transitions from
campaigning to governing, D'Amico suggests, delays in implementing any new



American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015

Contents
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015 - Contents
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