American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015 - 16

IndustryDigest
Environmental Groups
Sue EPA For Delaying
Toxic Reporting Action
WASHINGTON-Nine
environmental groups are suing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
alleging the agency has not acted on
their petition seeking to have chemicals
used in hydraulic fracturing listed on
the Toxic Release Inventory.
According to the lawsuit filed in the
U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, EPA has delayed classifying
oil and gas extraction activities as
subject to the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act since
1996, when it last added industrial
sectors to the TRI list of facilities
covered by the act.
The plaintiffs say EPA believed if it
classified the smallest possible oil or
gas industry units-the wells-as
facilities, those facilities would not meet
the employee and chemical thresholds
required for reporting, and so delayed
acting on them. Several of the plaintiffs
in the filing submitted a petition on Oct.
24, 2012, requesting EPA initiate a rule
making to add the oil and gas industry
to the list of facilities required to report
releases of chemicals under EPCRA.
The latest lawsuit alleges the
agency's delay in responding to that
petition is unreasonable and therefore
violates the Administrative Procedures
Act. The plaintiffs are requesting the
court compel EPA to issue a final
response to the petition within 60 days.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the
Environmental Integrity Project, Center
for Effective Government, Chesapeake
Climate Action Network, Citizens for
Pennsylvania's Future, Clean Air
Council, Delaware Riverkeeper
Network, Natural Resources Defense
Council, Responsible Drilling Alliance,
and Texas Campaign for the
Environment.
"Despite the litigants' reliance on
faulty data and a contorted application
of the statute, the Toxic Release
Inventory never was designed to target
small, diffuse targets across the United
States," responds the Independent
Petroleum Association of America. "To
better inform community emergency
planning, Congress enacted the TRI
provisions of EPCRA to focus on large,
concentrated industrial sites that use and
store large quantities of hazardous
16 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

chemicals."
IPAA argues that subjecting oil and
gas exploration and production facilities
to TRI reporting would be unnecessarily
burdensome, would provide the public
with little useful data, and would not
play any role in emergency response
planning.
"In the past, EPA rightfully has
decided not to expand TRI reporting
requirements to oil and natural gas
exploration and production activities
when it revised TRI reporting
obligations," IPAA holds. "Little has
changed to justify inclusion now." Ì

Federal Judge Rejects
N.M. County Ordinance
That Banned Fracturing
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-A federal
judge has expanded his November
ruling against a New Mexico county's
ban on hydraulic fracturing, holding
that the entire prohibition is
unconstitutional.
Judge James Browning in the U.S.
District Court for the District of New
Mexico, ruling in SWEPI LP v. Mora
County, held that a local ordinance
passed in 2013 that prohibited oil and
gas drilling activities, including
fracturing, within the county violated
the U.S. Constitution and New Mexico
law.
The Mora County Commission
approved the ordinance banning oil and
gas operations in 2013, arguing the
county had the right to put its residents'
interests ahead of corporation rights as
well as federal and state drilling
permits, Browning noted in his
decision. SWEPI LP, a subsidiary of
Royal Dutch Shell, paid the state
$216,200 for 36 leases in the county. It
contended the ordinance destroyed the
value of its leases.
SWEPI LP, three landowners and the
Independent Petroleum Association of
New Mexico filed the federal lawsuit in
January 2014. Browning ruled late last
year that parts of the ordinance were
unconstitutional, but ordered additional
hearings to address other parts of the
county's action (AOGR, December
2014, pg. 24).
IPANM Executive Director Karin
Foster says as a result of the ruling, the
association's Board of Directors will
push for legislation that expressly pre-

empts any government entity outside
the state's regulatory structure from
regulating the siting, drilling or
completion operations, or transporting
and processing of oil and natural gas in
the state.
Steve Henke, president of the New
Mexico Oil & Gas Association, says his
association believes the Mora County
ban was wrong from the start.
"The association's goal moving
forward is to work collaboratively with
the county to craft an ordinance that
provides for environmentally
responsible energy development,"
Henke says. "I hope county officials
take a step back, now that we have this
decision, and respond to the industry's
efforts to reach out to them to craft an
ordinance that works to address their
citizens' concerns while providing the
opportunity for industry to access
resources in Mora County."
Henke says it is likely Browning's
decision will deter other counties from
imposing similar ordinances.
"I think this is a death knell for
outright bans on hydraulic fracturing,
particularly where you have private
property rights and leases," he says.
"The judge was pretty clear that those
bans devalue those private property
interests." Ì

EPA Proposes Changes
To Dispersants, Agents
Approved For Oil Spills
WASHINGTON-The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency is
proposing to rewrite the National Oil and
Hazardous Substances Pollution
Contingency Plan (NCP). It says changes
to Subpart J of the plan will ensure that
dispersants and other chemical and
biological agents used to mitigate oil
spills in waters of the United States meet
efficacy and toxicity requirements, and
also ensure that product manufacturers
provide information regarding chemical
use and safety.
According to the agency, the
revisions to the list of approved
dispersants and other spill-mitigating
substances comes in response to
concerns raised following the 2010
Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf
of Mexico.
"Our emergency officials need the
best available science and safety
American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2015

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