American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017 - 34

American Petroleum Institute President
and Chief Executive Officer Jack Gerard
calls the move "a welcome step forward
for American competitiveness and jobs."
Also becoming law in February was
HJR 38, which passed the House 228-194
on Feb. 1, passed the Senate 54-45 on Feb.
2, and was signed by President Trump on
Feb. 16, according to congress.gov. HJR
38 nullifies the Stream Protection Rule finalized in December by the Department of
Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
A DOI news release says the purpose
of the rule was to minimize impacts to surface and groundwater from coal mining by
requiring companies "to avoid mining
practices that permanently pollute streams,
destroy drinking water sources, increase
flood risk, and threaten forests." The rule
also would have required companies to restore streams and return mined areas to the
uses they were capable of supporting prior to mining activities, DOI says.
House CRA Initiatives
A number of other CRA resolutions
were pending in Congress, including two
that passed the House of Representatives
in February: HJR 36, which representatives
approved 221-191 on Feb. 3, and HJR 44,
which passed the House 234-186 on Feb.
7, according to congress.gov.
HJR 36 would repeal the Bureau of
Land Management's Waste Prevention,
Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation (venting and flaring)
rule published in November, while HJR 44
would repeal BLM's "Planning 2.0" rule
finalized in December.
Domestic Energy Producers Alliance
President Mike McDonald calls BLM's
venting and flaring rule "a solution in search
of a problem," saying it "exceeds BLM's jurisdiction, duplicates existing EPA rules . .
. and is the residue of the previous administration, (which) abused the rule-making
process to pursue the ideological objective
of killing the domestic energy industry."
Independent Petroleum Association of
America President and CEO Barry Russell concurs. He contends, "A lack of infrastructure and gathering lines to collect
gas at the wellhead, coupled with an extremely slow process to permit pipeline
rights of way by the BLM make it exceedingly difficult for producers to safely
transport their product to market."
IPAA and the Western Energy Alliance
are challenging the venting and flaring rule
before the U.S. District Court in Wyoming
(AOGR, December 2016, pg. 32).
HJR 44 was filed by Representative Liz
Cheney, R-Wy., who argues BLM's Planning 2.0 takes authority away from local
communities and puts Washington bureau34 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

crats in charge of decision making, dilutes
cooperating agency status, and "discounts
input from those who are closest to our
lands and resources."
In a January letter to House Speaker Paul
Ryan, R-Wi., urging repeal of Planning 2.0,
IPAA and the Petroleum Association of
Wyoming worry the rule "prejudices multiple-use interests with a bias against oil and
gas resources on public lands."
API says Planning 2.0 "increases regulatory uncertainty and risks further delays
in the land-use planning process," adding
that more than 80 percent of voters support increased development of U.S. oil and
natural gas.
According to congress.gov, CRA resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives in February include:
* HJR 71, filed Feb. 13 by Representative Scott Tipton, R-Co., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., would repeal the oil and natural gas royalty valuation regulations released in June by the
Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
* HJR 70, introduced Feb. 9 by Representative Don Young, R-Ak., eliminates
requirements for exploratory drilling on the
Arctic Outer Continental Shelf that were
published in July by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and
the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
* HJR 60, introduced Feb. 2 by Representative Dan Newhouse, R-Wa., would
halt the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's new
compensatory mitigation requirements
under the Endangered Species Act.
* HJR 68, filed Feb. 7 by Representative Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., nullifies
BLM's rule published in November for
measuring natural gas produced on federal and Indian leases.
* HJR 56, filed Feb. 1 by Representative Steve Pearce, R-N.M., rejects BLM's
site security requirements for federal and
Indian oil and gas leases.
Fracturing Regulations
Several U.S. senators took the lead in
efforts to curb the federal government's attempts to regulate hydraulic fracturing.
On Feb. 7, congress.gov indicates,
Senator Jim Inhofe, R-Ok., and eight
cosponsors filed S 334, the Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands
(FRESH) Act, which grants to states the
"sole authority to promulgate or enforce
any regulation, guidance or permit requirement" related to hydraulic fracturing, and
directs that any fracture treatment on federal land "shall be subject to the law of the
state in which the land is located."
A companion bill, HR 928, was filed
the same day in the House of Representatives by Congressman Louie Gohmert, RTx., and five cosponsors.

The day before that, Senator Orrin
Hatch, R-Ut., introduced S 316, the Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act, which congress.gov says
recognizes states' rights to regulate oil and
gas operations by prohibiting the secretary
of interior from enforcing any federal
fracturing regulation in a state that has its
own regulations, and by ordering the secretary to defer to state regulations.
The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers points to published reports that quote
Senator Hatch saying, "This bill does
nothing to stop the federal government from
implementing fracturing standards in states
where none exist. It simply says that regulations from the federal government cannot trump state action already in place."
ESA Reforms
Among several bills to reform endangered species laws, IPAA points to HR
717, the Listing Reform Act, introduced
Jan. 27 by Representative Pete Olson, RTx., and three cosponsors. IPAA says the
bill requires factoring economic considerations into ESA listing decisions, and also
seeks to prevent outside groups from using lawsuits to pressure USFWS to set listing deadlines for certain species.
According to congress.gov, Congressman Olson introduced the same bill in
April 2015, but it never moved out of the
House Committee on Natural Resources.
Lawsuits to force ESA listings also are
the target of two bills introduced on Feb. 14
by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, RTx., IPAA continues. IPAA says S 375, the
Endangered Species Act Settlement Reform
Act, requires DOI to notify the public when
ESA lawsuits-often from environmental
groups-are filed, and sets a lower standard
for intervening in such lawsuits by outside
groups such as interested businesses.
The Texas Alliance, which notes Cornyn
filed similar bills in both 2013 and 2015, says
S 375 also requires judges to obtain the consent of affected local governments before approving settlements, and would block litigants from obtaining legal payments.
IPAA says S 376, the 21st Century Endangered Species Transparency Act, requires DOI and the Department of Commerce to publish online any scientific and
commercial data used for adding or removing animals and plants from the endangered or threatened species lists.
More species-specific are two identical
bills: HR 527, filed Jan. 13 by Representative Rob Bishop, R-Ut., and S 273,
filed Feb. 1 by Senator James Risch, R-Id.
According to IPAA, the Greater Sage
Grouse Protection and Recovery Act enables states to block any federal actions to
conserve sage grouse that do not align with
a state's own management plans, includ-

http://www.congress.gov http://www.congress.gov http://www.congress.gov http://www.congress.gov http://www.congress.gov http://www.congress.gov

American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017