EPA Introduces Hydraulic Fracturing Air Regulations
Monday Morning Report, April 23, 2012
The Obama administration has set the first ever national regulations for natural gas wells that are drilled using hydraulic fracturing.
Emissions from fracked gas wells occur when the well transitions from drilling to actual production. An earlier version of the rule limiting air pollution from gas wells would have required companies to install pollution-reducing equipment immediately after the rule was finalized.
Drillers will be required to employ technology to reduce emissions criteria pollutants during the completion stage by 2014. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will require drillers to burn off gas in the meantime. Also targeted are emissions from compressors, oil storage tanks and other oil-and-gas sector equipment which would cut 95 percent of emissions from wells developed with hydraulic fracturing, EPA said.
Industry groups pushed hard for additional time, explaining the equipment to reduce pollution at the wellhead during completion was not readily available. About 25,000 wells a year are being fracked, a process where water, chemicals and sand are injected at high pressure underground to release trapped natural gas.
There were other changes made since the EPA proposed the rule last July under a court order that stemmed from a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. Wells drilled in low-pressure areas, such as coalbed methane reserves, would be exempt because they release less pollution during completion. Companies that choose to re-fracture wells using the pollution-reducing equipment prior to the January 2015 deadline would not be covered by other parts of the regulation.
