Pa. House advances bill to ease rules for conventional oil and gas drillers

“In at least one instance, the bill would roll back measures that were included in the first oil and gas law from 1984: It would erase a requirement that before issuing a drilling permit DEP must consider a well’s impact on public resources, like publicly owned parks and historical sites. The proposed bill would replace that rule with a limited review that applies only to habitats of federally or state-listed threatened or endangered species.

“The bill would allow operators to spill up to 210 gallons of oil or 630 gallons of production brine at a well site without needing to report it to the department unless it poses ‘an immediate threat.’ The current standard for reporting spilled oil or brine is 5 gallons.

“It would allow conventional drillers that have polluted or diminished a drinking water supply to restore it to less than state clean drinking water standards if it was worse than those standards before the damage — a weaker restoration requirement than shale drillers have to meet.”

FULL STORY published May 1, 2018 via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette