Alex Mills
By Alex Mills
The Obama administration issued another regulation last week that is aimed at further restriction on the oil and natural gas industry. It is nothing more than a political payback to environmental activists who have said publicly that the administration has been tough on the coal industry, but it needs to put more restrictions on oil and natural gas.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 591 pages of new restrictions on hydraulic fracturing and other production activities on Aug. 18, and the public will have 60 days to comment once it is published in the Federal Register.
The new restrictions are not needed, and they are proposed only because environmental extremists and the Obama administration want to increase the cost of fossil fuels so that speculative fuels, such as wind and solar, will be able to compete for market share.
The facts remain: EPA’s own data shows methane emissions from natural gas production have fallen substantially in recent years.
Methane emissions from natural gas production activities have declined by 35 percent since 2007, while natural gas production has increased 22.5 percent.
Also, EPA reported in the fall 2011 that methane emissions associated with hydraulic fracturing have declined 73 percent since 2011.
Additionally, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued a report earlier this year proclaiming that “2014 ozone levels were the best ever in much of the state.”
“Texas’s air quality has made huge strides in the past few decades,” TCEQ stated.
Houston-area eight-hour ozone levels have improved 29 percent between 2000 and 2014 while the population has increased more than 34 percent.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, eight-hour ozone levels have likewise improved 21 percent during the last 15 years while the population grew more than 29 percent.
The Corpus Christi and Tyler-Longview-Marshall areas have seen 20 and 30 percent reductions in ozone over the last 15 years.
The Austin-Round Rock and Beaumont-Port Arthur areas have seen ozone improvements of 22 percent and 20 percent during this same period, respectively.
TCEQ stated that nine of the state’s 13 areas with at least 15 years of regulatory ozone monitoring recorded the lowest or tied the lowest ozone values in 2014.
The report noted oil and gas production has expanded rapidly near the San Antonio and DFW areas, “but the TCEQ’s scientific studies have not to date seen significant contributions of oil and gas activities to ozone levels in those metropolitan areas.”
Even though Texas has achieved outstanding results, the EPA has lowered ozone standards to 75 parts per billion (ppb). The previous standard was 84 ppb, and the DFW (81 ppb) and Houston (80 ppb) areas both reached attainment. However, the new 75 ppb standard makes both areas and San Antonio non-attainment areas.
“Recently, the EPA has proposed even lower ozone standards, in the 65-70 ppb range, and has requested comments on retaining the current standard or lower the standard to 60 ppb. Studies say that, to reach 60 ppb, sources in these Texas areas would have to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by as much as 75 percent from the levels of 2008-2010, depending on the final standard,” TCEQ said.
Additionally, EPA issued several weeks ago its Clean Power Plan, another complicated and unrealistic air emission regulation.
It became clear after President Obama’s failure to pass a cap-and-trade bill through Congress that he and environmental groups would focus on trying to regulate the oil, natural gas and coal industries out of business.
“We’ve seen the administration willing to take on King Coal,” Jamie Henn, co-founder of the climate activist group 350.org, said in a recent interview. “They’ve got to go after bigger bad guys, like Big Oil and the Koch brothers.”
Other environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, have been vocal and promoted their “Beyond Oil and Natural Gas” and “Beyond Coal” initiatives.
Alex Mills is President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The opinions expressed are solely of the author.
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