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Natural Gas

Agencies Carve Out 'Lanes' For Avoiding Duplication In Fracking Oversight

Obama administration officials are highlighting a new strategy for ensuring that research and oversight of hydraulic fracturing operations is not duplicative, optimizes collaboration and capitalizes on core capabilities of EPA, Department of Energy (DOE) and the Interior Department (DOI), carving out a “lane” of scrutiny for each agency to pursue.

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Suit Marks Test Of EPA's Use Of 'Aggregation' To Permit Oil, Gas Facilities

A pending industry suit is testing EPA's controversial policy for when regulators must "aggregate" emissions from oil and gas operations to determine whether they are subject to strict “major” source permits, though activists are hoping the court backs the agency's decision to strictly regulate a gas field in Michigan, setting a precedent for other permits.

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Pennsylvania 'Aggregation' Guidance Sets First-Time Boundary Definition

New draft guidance by Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) floats a first-time regulatory definition of a quarter mile for the boundary for determining when nearby oil and gas emissions must be "aggregated," or grouped together, for permitting purposes and subject to strict Clean Air Act pollution controls.

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Activists Urge EPA To Revise State Air Plan To Cut Shale Drilling Emissions

Environmentalists are urging EPA to force revisions to Pennsylvania's air quality plan for meeting agency air standards in order to impose controls on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, warning that the plan fails to address the emissions and raising the prospect of a lawsuit if EPA fails to respond to their concerns.

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Citing New Data, Democrats Seek Strict EPA Scrutiny Of Diesel In Fracking

House Democrats have submitted revised industry data to EPA showing greater use of diesel fuel in unpermitted fracking operations than earlier estimates, intensifying the lawmakers' calls for the agency to strictly address the practice in a series of upcoming policy decisions governing permitting and reporting requirements for the industry.

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GOP Senator Targets EPA Plan To Broadly Permit 'Diesel' Use In Fracking

A key Republican senator is mounting an early challenge to EPA's pending draft guidance for how hydraulic fracturing operations that use diesel fuels should be permitted under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), suggesting that the agency's plan to define “diesel” may be overly broad and oversteps its authority under the drinking water law.

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EPA Sees Technology Limits In Plan To Set Water Standards For Gas Drilling

EPA is acknowledging it may face hurdles in its plan to set first-time technology-based discharge standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for the growing shale gas drilling sector because there are few, if any, treatment technologies available -- a problem that industry says undermines the need for the agency to develop the regulation.

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EPA Faces Likely Industry Challenge To Fracking Guide's 'Diesel' Definition

Industry is vowing to challenge a seemingly broad definition of “diesel” EPA appears to be using in its draft guidance on permitting hydraulic fracturing operations under the drinking water law, saying the definition is unlawful because it targets chemicals beyond “diesel fuels” and oversteps the agency's Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) powers.

“We think the law says [EPA has the power to regulate] 'diesel fuels',” not the more general term, “diesel,” one industry attorney says.

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Despite Court Battle, DOJ Vows Strict Enforcement For Fracking Operations

The Justice Department's (DOJ) top environmental official is vowing to strictly enforce environmental laws against hydraulic fracturing operations even as the department is facing skepticism from a federal appellate court panel over what courts can consider when reviewing pre-enforcement actions.

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Industry Criticizes Deadlines, Feasibility Of EPA Fracking Well Air Rules

Oil and gas industry groups are criticizing what they see as EPA's too-short compliance deadline for its first-time rules limiting emissions from hydraulic fracturing wells and revised rules for other oil and gas drilling, saying  companies need more time to comply in order to build the emissions controls necessary to meet the rules' requirements.

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