The gloves came off on Sept. 25 when Earthworks Action and other environmental organizations directly attacked state oil and gas regulators in a new report.
"Breaking All the Rules: The Crisis in Oil & Gas Regulatory Enforcement" charged that more than half of all wells go uninspected each year, violators are rarely penalized because policies and rules are ambiguous, and penalties are so weak that many violators simply pay a fine instead of complying with the law.
The report examined enforcement data and practices in Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, and Ohio. Its recommendations included increasing inspection and enforcement resources until they meet systematically and transparently developed minimum standards; clarifying and updating rules so inspectors, producers, and the public know about violations and their consequences; and sharing enforcement information with the public and allowing citizen lawsuits.
"This is not just another partisan broadside," an Earthworks Action spokesman told OGJ on Oct. 1. "It's based on a year of in-depth research, and interviews with former state regulators and oil and gas company officials." The report is available online at www.earthworksaction.org.
Several officials and some governors at the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission have seen the report, a spokeswoman said the same day. The multi-state organization of state oil and gas regulators added a discussion about it to the schedule of its 2012 annual meeting Oct. 29-31 in San Antonio because it wants to fully review and address the allegations. "We don't want to respond irrationally," the IOGCC spokeswoman told OGJ.
Not a surprise
The question was not why a US environmental group directly attacked state regulators, but why it took so long. Those who support aggressive development of domestic tight oil and gas resources argue that states are better qualified because they're more experienced and closer to the actual operations. Opponents strongly disagree.
"So much oil and gas regulation is based on land, instead of environmental, laws," said Susan F. Tierney, a managing principal at Analysis Group Inc. in Boston who formerly was an assistant secretary for policy at the US Department of Energy.
States' regimes vary widely in quality, and many operate with reduced funding, she said on Sept. 24 at a two-day conference on shale gas's potential to transform US energy. Texas has better water data than Pennsylvania, Tierney suggested.
Former Wyoming Gov. David Freudenthal (D), who addressed the same conference, said that states are nevertheless the best qualified for the job. "The real basis for most of their regulations is management and conservation of their resources," he maintained.
The state-vs.-federal oil and gas regulatory debate will only get hotter in the coming weeks and months.