Drilling Reforms Too slow, DOE Panel Says
Charleston Gazette
10 November 2011
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal and state officials have moved far
too slowly to beef up restrictions to protect the environment and
local communities from the growing boom in natural gas drilling, a
U.S. Department of Energy advisory panel warned Thursday.
The DOE's Shale Gas Production Subcommittee urged lawmakers,
regulators and industry to act more quickly on recommendations
ranging from new guidelines for well casing construction to
studies of new science indicating natural gas may not provide the
greenhouse gas advantages previously estimated.
"The progress to date is less than the subcommittee hoped," the
group said in a press release.
The subcommittee -- made up of mostly of experts with ties to
industry -- said if action is not taken "there is a real risk of
serious environmental consequences and a loss of public confidence
that could delay or stop this activity."
The panel's new report comes as Marcellus Shale drilling
legislation in West Virginia appears stalled by industry
opposition to provisions aimed at setting a buffer zone around
homes, firming up well-casing construction standards and requiring
public notice of new drilling permit applications.
On Thursday, lawmakers called off an unusual Sunday morning
committee meeting on the Marcellus legislation. They scheduled a
new meeting for 8 a.m. Monday at the Capitol, just before a U.S.
Senate field hearing on natural gas drilling set to begin at 10
a.m. across Charleston at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse.
West Virginia business and political leaders have for several
years been promoting a potential boom in Marcellus Shale gas
drilling, saying it will provide a huge economic boost to the
state. Those leaders say they want drilling to be done
responsibly, but so far new legislation has failed and additional
inspectors have not been hired.
But DOE panel members say policymakers and industry need to get
out in front of potential problems associated with drilling, or
face serious damage and continued public opposition to industry
practices.
"The development of shale gas is one of the biggest energy
innovations, if not the biggest, in several decades," said the DOE
subcommittee chairman and MIT professor John Deutch. "But to
ensure the full benefits to the American people, environmental
issues need to be addressed now -- especially in terms of
wastewater, air quality and community impact."
Obama administration Energy Secretary Steven Chu appointed the
subcommittee to recommend improvements in safety and environmental
performance for expanded gas-drilling operations that use
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and advanced horizontal
drilling techniques.
In its initial report in August, the subcommittee said that,
"Intensive shale gas development can potentially have serious
impacts on public health, the environment and quality of life --
even when individual operators conduct their activities in ways
that meet and exceed regulatory requirements.
"The combination of impacts from multiple drilling and production
operations, support infrastructure (pipelines, road networks,
etc.) and related activities can overwhelm ecosystems and
communities," the panel said.
The new report outlines some areas where action hasn't been taken
or where subcommittee members felt actions taken were not
adequate:
• A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal for the
first-ever air pollution standards for drilling do not directly
limit methane emissions and fail to cover existing shale-gas
sources except for fractured or re-fractured existing wells.
• While some universities have published new reports on the issue,
government agencies have not launched new studies on the potential
for methane from drilling operations to migrate into drinking
water supplies.
• More detailed reviews need to be performed to follow-up on a
series of scientific papers that found greenhouse gas emissions
from natural gas are far greater than originally thought,
questioning the conventional wisdom that it is a good "bridge
fuel" to help the nation move from coal to renewable energy.
• EPA and the states are "not engaged in developing a
systems/lifecycle approach to water management" for the drilling
industry, and more work needs to be done to push for improvements
in well-casing design and construction.
The DOE panel also said, though, that legislation and regulation
isn't the only answer to potential problems associated with the
natural gas boom.
"Short- and long-term community impacts range from traffic, noise,
land use, disruption of wildlife and habitat, with little or no
allowance for planning or effective mechanisms to bring companies,
regulators, and citizens to deliberate about how best to deal with
near-term and cumulative impacts," the new report said.
"The subcommittee does not believe that these issues will resolve
themselves or be solved by prescriptive regulation or in the
courts," the report said. "State and local governments should take
the lead in experimenting with different mechanisms for engaging
these issues in a constructive way, seeking to go beyond
discussion to practical mitigation."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.