Committee vote delays regulation implementation

Federal dollars for transportation at risk, Wolf responds

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission voted 4-1 on Thursday to approve tighter emission standards for the conventional oil and gas industry, but a House committee vote will delay the state’s implementation of the regulation and cause the state to miss a deadline set by the federal government.

The objection from the Republican members of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee triggers a 14-day review period, following the IRRC vote. Because that period won’t be over by the time the legislative session ends on Nov. 30, the review period will drag into 2023 when lawmakers return to the Capitol for the start of the next session.

That means the state stands to miss a Dec. 16 deadline set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Pennsylvania to beef up its air pollution regulations. The state Department of Transportation has estimated that it will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars if the federal government follows through and withholds transportation dollars over the missed deadline.

Gov. Tom Wolf blasted Republicans in the House for causing the delay.

“It’s simply a disgrace that House Republicans are jeopardizing road and bridge repairs by holding up the administration’s efforts to make federally required updates,” Mr. Wolf said.

“Because these regulations are required under the Clean Air Act, failure to submit them in final form to U.S. EPA by December 16, 2022, will result in EPA imposing non-discretionary sanctions, and the federal government would thus withhold nearly $1 billion of transportation funding — funding that cannot be recuperated. Sanctions can threaten a variety of projects, including highway expansion, new roadway construction, and many highway/bridge restoration and maintenance projects. This could result in some roads and bridges being closed or weight limited, longer commutes, longer ambulance response times, more wear and tear on Pennsylvanians’ cars, and Pennsylvanians’ federal gasoline tax dollars going to other states.”

This regulation would affect more than 4,700 well owners of more than 27,600 facilities in Pennsylvania.

The GOP lawmakers wrote that the regulation would negatively affect citizens and businesses in their districts. They mentioned a legal issue saying the final regulation violates a 2016 state law that requires regulations for conventional wells be handled separately from those for unconventional or deep Marcellus Shale wells.

The letter referred to an earlier decision to split action on an emissions rule for unconventional wells approved by IRRC last July and the conventional well rule.

“It is difficult to claim that this regulation has been separate and independent when it was plucked out of a version of the regulation that was combined with unconventional wells,” the letter said.

Democrats on the ERE committee had urged IRRC to approve the regulation even while acknowledging that the state stands to miss the Dec. 16 deadline anyway.

“Republicans on this committee have repeatedly made clear their contempt for the Department of Environmental Protection and this Commonwealth’s Constitution, which enshrines that all Pennsylvanians ‘ have a right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment,’” Democratic ERE Committee chair Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, and the other Democratic members of the ERE Committee said in a letter to IRRC.