Feb 7, 2014 4 min read

As the natural gas boom has evolved in Pennsylvania and throughout the Appalachian Basin, states’ development of regulations has grown along with it, even encouraging alternate approaches from industry and other nongovernment groups.

That was the theme of a three-hour regulatory update presented Friday by the law firm Eckert Seamans, whose energy group focuses on environmental litigation and counseling. The program, held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, was entitled “Progressive Development: The State of Government and Non-Government Efforts to Ensure Safe and Reasonable Natural Gas Extraction in the Appalachian Basin.”

During a review of regulatory development in natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, attorneys Erin McDowell and Jessica Sharrow outlined the ways in which wastewater management from discharge, disposal, recycling and storage, as well as air emissions rules, continue to evolve since hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale began less than a decade ago.

While regulations vary from state to state, both attorneys noted a variety of instances where additional regulations are currently being proposed by each of the three states.

McDowell noted while Appalachian states encourage, but do not require wastewater recycling, Pennsylvania operators can submit to the Department of Environment Protection a source reduction strategy in connection with flowback and produced water. She added Pennsylvania as proposed a required reuse plan for fluids used to hydraulically fracture a well.

All three states have also adopted comprehensive and technical casing standards and all require installation and maintenance of a blowout preventer to prevent migration of gas or fluids into fresh groundwater.

The three states now also require operators to report chemical additives and their amounts used to stimulate a well.

Aside from environmental regulations promulgated by the states, industry-based and non-governmental groups have been active in sometimes divergent approaches in developing standards they encourage the industry to follow.

During a panel discussion moderated by Eckert Seamans’ Daniel Clearfield of the firm’s energy practice group executive committee, David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition and Andrew Place, president for the Center for Sustainable Shale Development discussed how their respective groups have taken numerous steps to promote responsible shale development.

Spigelmyer, who noted MSC, which formed in 2007 and now has more than 300 members from the natural gas industry, recognized early on that Pennsylvania’s oil and gas regulations, dated to the days of shallow-well development, weren’t adequate for horizontal drilling into shale a mile below the Earth’s surface.

“We were working on a set of rules for the industry to follow … from the get-go,” he said, adding that today, the coalition has a dozen operating committees working on various regulatory issues.

While MSC developed a host of “best practices” it recommends for its members, CSSD, which formed in early 2011 with traditionally opposed groups from industry giants like Chevron, Consol Energy, Shell Oil and EQT and environmental groups that include the Environmental Defense Fund, Clean Air Task Force and Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, was looking for “a rational middle” from which to develop standards that oil and gas companies working in the Appalachian Basin could follow and earn certification.

CSSD announced earlier this month it was ready to begin taking applications from companies that want to earn the certification.

In the upcoming year, Spigelmyer said MSC plans to expand its community engagement, while Place said CSSD also plans to spread its message to other operators and non-government organizations.

Congressman Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and founder of the Natural Gas Caucus, said his subcommittee is watching the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulations for the oil and gas industry.

According to Murphy, while President Obama endorsed an “all-of-the-above” strategy for energy in his State of the Union address this month, he said EPA regulations regarding coal-fired power plants don’t support the president’s statement.

He said with the continuous development of regulations by the Appalachian states as the natural gas industry continues to evolve, federal regulations could be a hindrance or take the states out of the regulatory process altogether.

“I don’t want to get us locked into a position where the EPA says, ‘This is the regulation’ and leaves it there,” he said.