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Pennsylvania fracking oversight report receives more pushback
09 July 2020IHS Markit Energy Expert
The investigative report by the Pennsylvania grand jury released
last month that was highly critical of the Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Health (DOH)
for their oversight of the hydraulic fracturing industry has drawn
a second major rebuttal, this one from Michael L. Krancer, who was
Department of Environmental Resources secretary from January 2011
to April 2013.
"For several years I had the privilege to serve the citizens of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the Secretary of the Department
of Environmental Resources. During that time, I made it my business
to get to know and spend time with as many DEP personnel as I
could. In my view, every single one of the more than 3,000 people,
many of whom devoted their entire career to environmental
protection are dedicated, honest and took their work at the DEP
very seriously," Krancer's response begins.
"Those people left an indelible impression with me and it is
because of them that I feel compelled to speak out forcefully
against the Grand Jury Report. It would be inappropriate for me, as
their former Secretary, to sit idly while 3,000 DEP personnel are
attacked with broad brush. I know that the people at DEP never
wavered from the law, never turned a blind eye to wrongdoing and
always kept the safety of Pennsylvania's citizens paramount."
DEP's actions reflected the wishes of the administration and
legislatures, he added. "DEP was not the body that decided that
natural gas drilling was permitted by law. DEP never took a
position on hydraulic fracturing. The General Assembly and
Governors from both parties deemed it to be the policy of the
Commonwealth to provide for the extraction of natural gas. We
addressed every situation as it arose. We remained focused on
environmental impacts of each project and permit application. I
stand by the record we established and reject the assertions of the
Report," he wrote.
The report
The report was released on June 25 by Attorney General Dan
Shapiro, who held a press conference to talk about the report's
findings and to note that the same grand jury had returned criminal
charges against Cabot Oil & Gas and Range Resources. Range has
settled the claims against it.
"The grand jury took all of this evidence in from all sides,"
said Shapiro when the report, two years in the making, was
released. "This was unprecedented access. And they came to this
conclusion: Giant oil companies were given a free pass by
unprepared agencies."
The report recommended a range of new laws and regulations, such
as much larger drilling setbacks, complete disclosure of fracking
chemicals and comprehensive regulations of gas gathering lines. It
also said that the state attorney general should have the ability
to file criminal charges against violators of environmental
laws.
The rebuttals
DEP published a 56-page response that accompanied the release of
the report, indicating both where it disagreed with the report's
findings and where reforms already had been enacted. Then, the
Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade group, released a response that
challenged some of the conclusions in the report.
Now, Krancer has weighed in. He raised a few of the key themes
in the report and answered.
Poor oversight.
"This is untrue. We innovated in regulatory practices and were
diligent in our oversight of an industry, natural gas, which DEP
had a long history of regulating. We consistently implemented the
laws passed by the General Assembly and did more via regulation,
policy, guidance and 'boots on the ground."
An assessment by the independent, multi-stakeholder group State
Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations concluded,
"the Pennsylvania program is, overall, well-managed, professional
and meeting its program objectives."
Taking a passive, wait-and-see approach to protecting the
public.
During Krancer's tenure, DEP took proactive steps, such as
coming up with a 'call to drillers' to limit the use of certain
municipal water treatment facilities accepting produced water that
contained chemicals (bromide) that those plants were incapable of
managing. The voluntary program worked much faster than enacting a
regulation.
In those same years, DEP initiated a comprehensive study on
radioactivity in drilling wastewater.
Failure to balance public health and economic interests.
As noted earlier, the state set the policy, and DEP carried it
out. During Krancer's term, the state enacted Act 13 of
2012, "which set stronger environmental standards, authorized
local governments to adopt an impact fee and built upon the state's
ongoing efforts to move towards energy independence as
unconventional gas development continues." These include increased
setback requirements for unconventional gas development; enhanced
disclosure of fracking chemicals; enhanced protection of water
supplies; and strong, uniform, consistent statewide environmental
standards.
Lack of enforcement.
Consent decrees dating back to the early 2010s resulted in
millions of dollars in fines, moratoriums on fracking activity and
new reviews of processes.
Slow-walking new regulations.
"DEP put into effect a more protective air general permit for
drill sites that was one of the first in the nation to control
methane emissions, we implemented a new general waste management
permit for drill sites and we started the formal regulatory process
for development of an entire new comprehensive set of regulations
governing surface activities at well sites that become final law as
new Chapter 78a under the current administration."
Managerial incompetence.
"This is demonstrably false and is flatly contradicted by the
unbiased STRONGER Report of 2011," he wrote. "And, in fact, we did
a comprehensive reorganization of DEP in order to improve
managerial and organizational effectiveness. Part of that
reorganization focused specifically on the experienced and
projected growth of the natural gas sector and was a reflection of
the administration's emphasis on proper oversight of that
activity."
"We took the important step of elevating the Bureau of Oil and
Gas Management to becoming the Oil and Gas Deputate which was
headed by a Deputy Secretary of DEP. This moved shale gas
regulation from a 'back bench' operation to front line and provided
a centrally based organization within DEP to unify oversight of
that industry. This is more regulation, not less."
