American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019 - 130

fugitive emissions based on sales volumes
rather than the total volume extracted
from the wellhead. "If the percentage of
loss were calculated based on extracted
volumes, a 50% 'proportional loss rate'
would drop to 33% because the loss
would be added to the sales volume to
obtain the extracted volume," IPG writes.
Third, IPG complains, EDF "only shows
data from the 70th percentile of information.
This excludes all of the virtually zero
emissions that dominate the data."
Another problem can be found in the
way EDF collected its data, offers Cross.
EDF measured emissions from a site for
approximately five minutes and then extrapolated that data to assume annual
emissions, regardless whether the brief
interval measured was typical.
Accurate Emissions Data
Cross says that while EPA Administrator Wheeler, his predecessor Scott
Pruitt and agency technical staff agree in
private conversations with IPC's assessment of the EDF emissions report, they
need real data to support changing the
regulation. "It's not enough to just say
the other data is bad because they know
they are going to be sued," he remarks.
That led to efforts to obtain actual
methane emission data, and last year,
Cross recalls, the Department of Energy
agreed to underwrite such a study, although
it still required industry cost-sharing in
the form of site access and supplemental
funding. Companies in some of the country's major producing basins such as the
Permian and Appalachian quickly responded, Cross continues.
But, he says, that raised concern elsewhere that the study might "follow the
money" and not be reflective of the types
of wells in areas without unconventional
resource plays. Consequently, Cross says,
at the Liaison Committee of Cooperating
Oil & Gas Association's meeting in January this year, representatives from

Kansas, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana
committed to ensuring they were included
in the final report.
"As a group, we were able to provide
$50,000 in funding," he reports.
A contract has been awarded to GSI
Environmental Inc., which by the end of
June, Cross says, had completed a desktop
review of 75,000 wells across the United
States. Beginning in late August, he says,
GSI Environmental will begin field investigations at 100-200 sites in three regions
across the country, including sites in Kansas
and Michigan. The goal, he says, is to
finish a report during the second half of
2020 (see related story, page 33).
"In the comments KIOGA and IPC
filed with EPA, we expressed the hope
EPA would delay a final decision on the
methane rule until it got the data from
this study," Cross points out, adding:
"The data will be what it will be, but we
think it will show (methane emissions
from marginal wells) are really low."
Lesser Prairie Chicken
In September 2015, the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Texas
vacated the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's
April 2014 listing of the lesser prairie
chicken (LPC) as an endangered species
(AOGR, October 2015, pg. 20). That has
led a number of people to conclude that
restrictions on development in LPC habitat
are no longer a concern.
Not so, White emphasizes. "A lot of
people think we are past that, but we are
not," he says. "I get calls all the time and
the best I can tell anybody is that it still
is in limbo. It is not gone. So many
people don't understand that."
Indeed, in September 2016, Defenders
of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity
and the Wildearth Guardians submitted a
new listing petition to USFWS and in
November 2016, the service issued a positive 90-day finding that a listing might
be warranted and initiated a 12-month

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130 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

review (AOGR, January 2017, pg. 14).
That report was due in September
2017, but never was completed, and on
June 12 this year, the three environmental
organizations filed a lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia,
asking the judges to find USFWS in violation of the Endangered Species Act and
to order the agency to publish a proposed
rule (AOGR, July 2019, pg. 16).
Cross says he spoke with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on June 19, emphasizing that the LPC population had
increased by 71% since the peak of the
drought in 2013.
"Basically, we hope DOI will chart a
different course than the previous administration, which listed the LPC despite the
unprecedented level of voluntary conservation efforts being undertaken," he outlines.
"That sent a strong signal to those working
(to protect the species) that no amount of
private investment or voluntary conservation
would satisfy the federal government. It
was going to list the bird anyway. There
was no incentive for (private efforts)."
Since then, Cross reports, Bernhardt
has proposed changing the way USFWS
lists species under the ESA. "USFWS is
reviewing three rules that address habitat
determination, species listing priorities and
the listing species recovery process," Cross
states, saying the proposal would make
four significant changes to the ESA process:
· Allow consideration of economics
in listing determinations;
· Require habitat actually be inhabited
by the species to be considered critical
habitat;
· Impose Section 9 restrictions only
on species listed as endangered (threatened
species could have special treatment under
Section 4(d), but no longer would require
a special rule); and
· Modify the delisting process to be
more in line with requirements for listing
a species.
Like Wheeler at EPA, Cross insists,
Secretary Bernhardt is sympathetic to
KIOGA's and industry's concerns. But,
he says, "He knows DOI is going to be
sued. So, while he agrees with the things
we say, he needs data to support (agency
actions) so it can defend them. We, as an
industry, have to provide that data."
Gas Gathering Regulations
The news is less encouraging on one
other federal front, Cross admits. In late
June, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration's Gas
Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC)
recommended PHMSA impose federal
safety regulations on all gas gathering
lines 8.625 inches or greater in diameter
(see story page 40).

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019

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