American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2019 - 96

ConventionSection: Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association
· Requiring automatic or remote
shutoff values on pipelines that impact
high-consequence areas in the commonwealth.
The two legislators say their proposals
are more likely to advance now that they
have received gubernatorial support. On
Feb. 8, Wolf urged legislation to fill what
he termed gaps in Pennsylvania law regarding pipeline construction and operations safety.

"Overall, in terms of active legislation,
we still have friends within the general
assembly. The Senate and the House both
are Republican dominated, particularly
the House leadership," Slagel assesses.
"The speaker has a very good understanding of the needs and contributions
of the oil and gas industry. We feel that if
any of these proposals do make it out of
the Senate, they won't go far when they
get to the House."

Conventional Wells
PIOGA again will back legislation
giving conventional oil and gas operations
their own regulatory scheme, Weaver
says. During the 2018 session, HB 2154,
sponsored by Representative Martin
Causer, R-Bradford, passed the House
but stalled in Senate committees (AOGR,
Nov. 2018, pg. 34).
When the commonwealth passed its
overhaul of oil and gas regulations with
2012's Act 13, it covered both conventional
and unconventional wells. When Causer
introduced his measure in March 2018,
he described it as an attempt to relieve
conventional operators of the burdens of
regulations designed for unconventional
Marcellus and Utica shale wells by reenacting the Oil and Gas Act of 1984
with updated provisions for conventional
well activities.
Legislative support for Pennsylvania's
oil and gas industry depends on which
region a legislator represents, Weaver assesses, and the divide has grown in recent
years.
"If you are from Southeast Pennsylvania right now, you don't want to hear
the word 'pipeline.' But in the Northeast
and North-Central counties, they need
those pipelines to connect their wells,"
he says. "The western half of the state is
dealing with pipelines coming on to feed
Shell's ethane cracker plant. We need to
proceed cautiously and make sure these
projects do not get held up."
Unconventional Well Fees
A recommendation by the Department
of Environmental Protection to increase
permit fees for unconventional wells from
$5,000 for nonvertical wells and $4,200
for vertical wells to $12,500, sparked concern when it was introduced late in 2018,
Weaver says, but the proposal has not
gained much traction, even in the agency.
"(DEP Deputy Secretary) Scott Perry
said if we do not like that, we should
come up with something better to help
pay for DEP staff," he describes. "He
says DEP's oil and gas department is
losing $800,000 a month. When it first
came out, the department was losing
$400,000 a month. Then it went to
$600,000, and now it is $800,000. But
we have inspectors who are out on location, some of my operators relate, they
are there every day."
Weaver suggests the agency reconsider
how it allocates staff, although he adds
DEP probably will reject that suggestion

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