April 30, 2012 by NADCA in Industry News
The New York Times (4/19, A20, Broder, Subscription Publication) reports, "Oil and gas companies will have to capture toxic and climate-altering gases from wells, storage sites and pipelines under new air quality standards issued on Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency." The Times reports, "Industry groups said meeting the proposed standards would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and slow the boom in domestic natural gas production."
The Los Angeles Times (4/19, Banerjee) reports that the oil and gas industry expressed concern "that if a national standard went into effect this year, there would not be enough companies providing the green completion technology to meet the increased demand, making the rule more expensive to comply with." Ultimately, "the rules are expected to affect the approximately 11,000 new wells annually that undergo hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and another 1,200 or so that are re-fracked to boost production," the Times said.
USA Today (4/19, Vergano) adds that EPA official Gina McCarthy said "half of all new fracking wells already collect gases from the initial drilling of the well...but only Colorado and Wyoming explicitly require such green completions."
The Wall Street Journal (4/19, A3, Tracy, Subscription Publication) reported that the delay in the implementation of the rules suggests that in an election year, the Obama Administration was cautious about taking any steps that the oil and gas industry may have perceived as an attack.
The Washington Post (4/19, Eilperin, Mufson) also covers the story.
Manufacturers: More Regulations From EPA Will Hamper Job Creation. In a press released, the National Association of Manufacturers
(4/19) President and CEO Jay Timmons said, "President Obama continues to tout the importance of manufacturing. However, the Administration's actions signal the opposite, as these new costly regulations on energy producers hurt manufacturers' competitiveness and delay job creation." Timmons also said, "These regulations will add to the cumulative regulatory burden facing manufacturers – making it unnecessarily harder to create jobs. There is no doubt that small energy producers and manufacturers will be disproportionally affected by these new regulations from the EPA. Most unfortunate is that these new rules will only increase energy prices in the long run."