American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018 - 30

in fiscal 2017. Among Zinke's priorities,
the reports indicate, is creating a fund
for repairing and maintaining national
parks and wildlife refuges to be paid for
by new leases for energy development.
Infrastructure Plan
President Trump's $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, which also was released
Feb. 12, works with his budget priorities
to speed permitting for infrastructure
projects, including natural gas pipelines,
published reports continue.
"(These) efforts to promote certainty
in a permitting process that is driven by
sound science are critical to ensuring that
Americans can continue to benefit from
increased production and use of the energy

they demand every day," responds American Petroleum Institute President and
Chief Executive Officer Jack Gerard.
Included in the plan is giving the secretary of interior authority to approve
natural gas pipeline routes through national
parks, which published reports say currently is reserved to Congress.
The infrastructure plan appears to draw
on President Trump's August executive
order on speeding environmental reviews
and federal authorizations for infrastructure
projects, which contemplates, among other
things, specifying a lead federal agency
for all projects to coordinate environmental
reviews and permitting decisions (AOGR,
September 2017, pg. 32).
Among the actions the infrastructure

plan outlines, as detailed in a report cited
by the Texas Alliance, are:
* Directing the White House Council
on Environmental Quality to rewrite its
National Environmental Policy Act guidance so as to designate a lead agency
that would produce a single combined
review document for each project within
two years;
* Setting a 150-day statute of limitations on permitting decisions (currently
six years);
* Eliminating EPA's Clean Air Act
authority to review other agencies' environmental impact statements; and
* Clarifying deadlines for states to
issue Clean Water Act Section 401 water
permits for pipeline construction. r

BLM Proposes To Rewrite Flaring Rule
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Bureau of
Land Management took the next step toward eliminating its Obama-era regulations
on venting and flaring by announcing in
February a proposal to revise its 2016
Waste Prevention, Production Subject to
Royalties and Resource Conservation
rule.
That Feb. 12 announcement followed
by two weeks a Jan. 31 instruction memorandum that signaled BLM's intent to
return to quarterly oil and gas lease sales,
and to eliminate use of Obama-era master
leasing plans.
"In order to achieve energy dominance
through responsible energy production,
we need smart regulations, not punitive
regulations," declared Interior Assistant
Secretary for Land and Minerals Man-

agement Joseph Balash in announcing
the proposal to rewrite BLM's venting
and flaring regulations. "We believe this
proposed rule strikes that balance and
will allow job growth in rural America."
BLM reviewed its venting and flaring
rules in response to President Donald
Trump's March 2017 executive order
on promoting energy independence.
Among the concerns the agency says it
uncovered "was that the economic impact
on operators was underestimated in the
2016 rule. In addition, a review of state
and federal regulations found considerable overlap."
The 2016 final rule was to become effective on Jan. 17, 2018. Last June, BLM
attempted to postpone that compliance
date utilizing Section 705 of the Admin-

istrative Procedure Act. However, in October, the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California invalidated
that effort (AOGR, November 2017).
BLM issued a proposed rule on Oct.
5 to postpone implementing the regulations
until Jan. 17, 2019, and followed that on
Dec. 8 with a final rule delaying implementation (AOGR, January 2018, pg. 24).
BLM Draft Rule
According to the proposed rewrite
published in the Feb. 22 Federal Register,
BLM is proposing to rescind requirements
in the 2016 final rule for:
* Waste minimization plans;
* Well construction;
* Well completion and related operations;

Judge Says To Enforce 2016 Flaring Rule
SAN FRANCISCO-For the second
time, the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California has moved
to halt the Trump administration's attempts to delay the Obama-era Waste
Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties and Resource Conservation rule.
On Feb. 22, published reports say,
Judge William Orrick in San Francisco
granted a preliminary injunction to the
states of California and New Mexico
along with 17 environmental organizations that had sued to block the Bureau
of Land Management's Dec. 8 final
order suspending or delaying until 2019
parts of its 2016 venting and flaring
regulation.
It was Judge Elizabeth Laporte of
the Northern California District Court
30 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

who ruled in October that BLM's June
attempt to postpone the regulation violated Section 705 of the Administrative
Procedure Act (AOGR, November
2017, pg. 30).
In his February ruling, reports indicate, Judge Orrick found that BLM's
reasons for not enforcing the rule were
"untethered to evidence contradicting
the reasons for implementing (the
rule)."
The judge wrote, "It appears BLM
is simply casually ignoring all of its
previous findings and (is) arbitrarily
changing course."
Orrick ruled that the plaintiffs "have
shown irreparable injury caused by the
waste of publicly owned natural gas,
increased air pollution and associated

health impacts, and exacerbated climate impacts," reports say, and also accused Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke of
limiting the scope of public comments.
The reports add that Judge Orrick
rejected a motion by the states of
North Dakota and Texas to move the
case to the U.S. District Court for the
District of Wyoming where the Independent Petroleum Association of
America and the Western Energy Alliance, along with several states, have a
lawsuit pending against the 2016 venting and flaring regulations.
According to the reports, IPAA and
the Alliance were reviewing Orrick's
ruling to determine their next action. r

American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018

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