American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016 - 33

advantage to an operator, or is conducted
by a recalcitrant operator.
Thomas says the bill, as written, would
have imposed fines of $25,000 a day for
each violation. "CIPA negotiated with
legislators so that if there is a paperwork
problem, the fine will be from zero to
$2,500," he details. "The next tier covers
something that impacts the environment
in a minor way. That is a $10,000 fine.
Any egregious act is $25,000 per fine
per day. That is the disincentive for bad
actors."
The bill allows DOGGR to accept a
supplemental environmental project by
the violator, which could offset as much
as 50 percent of the civil penalty.
AB 2756 moved from the Assembly
to the Senate Natural Resources Committee on June 6. Thomas says CIPA has
discussed both AB 2729 and AB 2756
with DOGGR, and the association will
hold its opposition to both measures in
the upper house if there are no revisions.
The third bill opposed by CIPA,
Thomas says, was AB 1882. Introduced
by Williams, it would have required the
State Water Resources Control Board or
the appropriate regional water board to
review all UIC projects, and to propose
additional requirements, including groundwater monitoring. Thomas says this was
Williams' third attempt to impact the
state's UIC program.
AB 1882 failed to advance out of the
Assembly Appropriations Committee,
Thomas says. "This time the bill did not
even warrant a vote on the Assembly

floor. When Williams brought it up last
year, he received just 30 votes. The association is glad to see that measure defeated,
and happy there will be no more threats,
at least from that perspective, to the UIC
program," he applauds.
Other Issues
Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin
de León, D-Los Angeles, introduced SB
1387, which adds three representatives to
the South Coast Air Quality Management
District (SCAQMD) governing board.
Thomas says CIPA opposes the measure
because it increases the board membership
to 16, an even number that will make it
more likely to end in split votes.
The proposed legislation also requires
SCAQMD to adopt a plan to maintain state
and federal ambient air quality standards
for the South Coast Air Basin, including
deadlines for compliance and requirements
to use best available retrofit control technology, the legislative website says.
"The other piece of SB 1387 is de
León wants to place environmental justice
members on the SCAQMD board, although
that ability exists already," Thomas says.
"He says he wants to put more Latinos on
the board. That ability exists already. De
León also wants to put any decision by a
local air district board into the hands of
the California Air Resources Board, so
you are now extracting local control and
putting it into the hands of the state."
Thomas points out that in addition to
CIPA, more than 80 groups oppose SB
1387, including the League of California

Cities.
"Because organizations such as ours
have business in front of the board-the
Los Angeles Basin in particular-CIPA is
going to be extremely aggressive in opposing this measure," Thomas says. "Because of the board's new makeup, de
León feels he is compelled to try to flip
it back to a more pro-activist position."
Another unwanted piece of legislation
is SB 1383, sponsored by Senator Ricardo
Lara, D-Huntington Park, Thomas says.
His website says the bill seeks to reduce
emissions of short-lived pollutants by setting
targets to achieve a 50 percent reduction
in black carbon, and a 40 percent drop in
methane and fluorinated gases by 2030.
"AB 32, the California Global Warmings Solutions Act of 2006, already covers
many of those issues," Thomas points
out. "SB 1383 just puts more legislation
into requirements that already are in
statute. I have to remind people that California has some of the most stringent
and toughest environmental laws anywhere
in the world."
CIPA also continues to monitor the
ballot initiatives that will go before California voters in the November election,
Thomas mentions.
"There is nothing among the initiatives
that have qualified that specifically target
the oil and gas industry," he says. "But
when you have a push for multiple taxes
on a ballot, there is always some concern.
A bad tax is a bad tax. The past has
shown that if you have multiple taxes on
a ballot, they usually lose."
❒

New York Advances Town Pipeline Bill
HAMBURG, N.Y.-New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo launched his "New York
Open for Business" marketing initiative in
2011. If it wasn't enough that state regulators
fully closed the door for the oil and gas industry with their 2014 ban on high-volume
hydraulic fracturing, Brad Gill, executive
director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York, says Cuomo has all
but excluded natural gas and oil from his
2015 "Reforming the Energy Vision" program, where he promotes investments in
renewable energy initiatives across the state.
Furthermore, legislators continue to add
their efforts to attempts to shut out oil and
gas energy development. Gill says companion bills in the New York Statehouse
proposed to give towns local permitting
controls similar to those already granted
cities and villages over pipelines built near
their jurisdictions. The bills were under review in the Senate Corporations, Authorities

and Commissions Committee when the
2016 legislative session ended on June 18.
A 10468, sponsored by Assemblyman
Frank Skartados, D-Milton, and S 7979,
written by Senator Kathleen Marchione,
R-Halfmoon, sought to amend Section 87
of the Transportation Corporations Law.
If the legislation had passed, pipeline construction would have required supermajority
consent by local governing bodies.
According to Skartados' website, the
bills required that before a pipeline project
began, a town board of trustees or legislative body must have passed a resolution,
including terms and conditions agreed to
by both the municipality and the company
seeking to build the pipeline. The company
would have had to provide route details
and the manner of construction.
While this information is provided routinely now, Gill says the bills would have
given home-rule power to towns, which

would have made planning and implementing a nightmare for pipeline construction companies. The bills did not
specifically single out oil or natural gas
projects, but he notes the wording made
clear that those were the intended targets.
He points out that the legislation discussed
how pipelines transported volatile and
dangerous materials "that pose a number
of health and environmental hazards to
the communities through and next to which
they are constructed."
"IOGA NY opposed this legislation,
as it would have created a patchwork of
areas where a pipeline could be installed,
making it hard for a pipeline company to
plan and build. It also would have added
significantly to pipeline construction costs
at a time when commodity prices are low
and regulatory compliance costs are soaring.
The industry simply cannot absorb additional burdens such as this," Gill says. ❒
JULY 2016 33

American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016

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