Our Mid Atlantic energy analyst friend today opines on the new EPA power grab (Re: drilling/air quality requirements):
The EPA issued its “final rules” (more on that phrase in a minute) for methane emissions from new and reworked shale wells, which are described in more detail below. The rules will be phased in, but they are not subject to further comment. A couple of comments:
- There was a report this morning from Bloomberg that the regulations were much worse than expected, and that they came down much harder on existing wells (including stripper wells) than had been expected. The link is directly below. Since then, we have not found any such analysis anywhere else.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-12/for-oil-drillers-obama-methane-rule-is-worse-than-proposed
- In fact, the analysis supplied by our friends at Washington Analysis puts the “final” rules into perspective, andsays they “will have limited impact on E&P companies”. They outline their reasons for this statement below.
- But it is a misuse of the word to consider these rules “Final”. This is just the opening salvo from the inglorious bastards at the EPA. It is a fact of our society that “regulators regulate”, and the only direction for regulation is expansion of the same.
- The cost/benefit analyses done by the EPA to justify the rules are an absolute joke. We will not deal with them tonight, but they might be good material for a future note. The health benefits from curtailing widely disbursed methane emissions cannot really be subject to numerical estimation (unless perhaps the originator has practiced such sleight of hand by calculating how much more severe a rain storm is due to Climate Change).
These regulations will be litigated, they will be decried by Republicans (who in the end will, predictably, do nothing), and the EPA will move on to setting regulations for existing wells, while tightening the tolerances on new wells.
More on this subject as it comes out!
Dave Harbour, publisher of Northern Gas Pipelines, is a former Chairman of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, a Commissioner Emeritus of NARUC, NARUC's Official Representative to IOGCC and Vice Chairman of NARUC's Gas Committee. He served as Gas Committee Chairman of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners. He also served as commissioner of the Anchorage Bicentennial Commission and the Anchorage Heritage Land Bank Commission.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree: English, at Colorado State University, a Master of Science Degree: Communications-Journalism at Murray State University and graduated from Utility Regulatory School for Commissioners at Michigan State University. He served as a Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Alaska Pacific University, taught bank marketing classes at the University of Alaska and was an English teacher at Los Alamos High School.
Harbour served in ranks of Private - Captain during a 4-year assignment with the Army in Korea, Idaho, Georgia and Fort Meade and received the Meritorious Service Medal among other commendations.
Harbour is also a past Chairman of the Alaska Council on Economic Education, the Alaska Oil & Gas Association Government Affairs Committee, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the Export Council of Alaska and the Department of Commerce's District Export Council. He is a past President of the Alaska Press Club, American Bald Eagle Foundation, Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska and Common Sense for Alaska.
Harbour was instrumental in founding the American Bald Eagle Research Institute (UAS), the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the Downtown Anchorage Business Partnership, and Arctic Power.
He also served as CEO of several small Alaska organizations, including the Anchorage Parking Authority and Action Security, Inc. Harbour is also Chairman Emeritus of the Alaska Oil & Gas Congress.
Harbour's wife, Nancy, is a professional, performing arts administrator and his three boys, Todd, Benjamin and William work in the fields of environmental management, energy marketing and medicine.
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