Barnett Shale

DOE official from Fort Worth heads federal committee on unconventional oil and gas development

Christopher Smith, a 1986 graduate of Southwest High School and now deputy assistant secretary for  oil and natural gas at the U.S. Department of Energy, heads a newly created steering committee charged with the safe development of the nation's shale and other unconventional petroleum reserves. Smith was in his hometown Thursday, where he addressed a breakfast group and planned a tour of the Fort Worth manufacturing facility of Frac Tech, a maker of hydraulic fracturing equipment. Smith told us the purpose of the committee is to set the priorities of environmental and technical concerns that its six members, two each from DOE, EPA and U.S. Geological Survey, should pursue. President Barack Obama issued an executive order establishing the committee in April with a mandate to create a multi-agency research plan "using each agency's core competencies" to advance the prudent development of U.S. oil and gas resources.

"This is a resource that can be developed safely," said Smith, a West Point graduate who holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge and previously worked for Texaco and Chevron. The goal is to "scientifically quantify" the risks and rewards of shale development.

-- Jim Fuquay

Sand is also fracking hazard, researcher says

Fine sand particles suspended in the air during hydraulic fracturing is a bigger health risk to well workers than exposure to hazardous chemicals, a safety researcher said Monday. Sand dust can lodge in the lungs and cause silicosis, Eric Esswein of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health told a Monday conference sponsored by the Institute of Medicine, an independent health advisory group that is part of the National Academies.

A report by Bloomberg News is here.

-- Jim Fuquay

Reaction to Armendariz resignation continues

Today's resignation of Al Armendariz, Dallas region administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, sparked new reactions that began last week with the release of a 2010 video that shows Armendariz comparing the agency's enforcement efforts with those of Roman conquerors who crucified several random inhabitants to control occupied communities. Here is a sampling of responses issued today.

Texas Council on Environmental Quality:

"While we approve the decision by Dr. Armendariz to step down from his position as Region 6 Director, we are under no illusions that this will change the direction of the EPA.  That comes from EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.  In the video that led to his resignation, Dr. Armendariz says as much, stating, “…that’s our general philosophy.”

This EPA administration has been unwavering in its determination to impose new regulations and new costs on Americans and American industry, often without any real scientific determination that new laws will result in any environmental benefits. Dr. Armendariz’s mistake was that he slipped and unveiled the EPA’s questionable and draconian enforcement philosophy.  The TCEQ hopes that perhaps the resulting nationwide cry of outrage will be heard in Washington, D.C."

Ken Kramer, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter director

“The resignation of Dr. Al Armendariz as Region 6 EPA administrator is a major loss for Texas. He brought a breath of fresh air – literally and figuratively – to Texas in his vigorous enforcement of the federal Clean Air Act. He took the bold steps that have been needed for decades to move our state forward to achieving a clean and healthy environment for Texans. Dr. Armendariz was one of the best Region 6 EPA administrators who have served since the post was created in the 1970s. The only people who will celebrate this resignation are the polluters who continue to foul Texas air and the politicians who serve those special interests.”

Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter

“In March, when the EPA vacated the emergency order against Range Resources, I called for the resignation of Dr. Armendariz. The EPA’s faulty science in persecuting Range
Resources, compounded by his inflammatory and prejudicial comments about
crucifying oil companies, is a very clear indication that Dr. Armendariz
is not the right person for such an important position.”

Steve Everly, Energy In Depth

"There’s a role for activists and there’s a role for regulators. When one becomes the other, that’s when you can run into problems. The bigger story here was always that his comments weren’t just made in isolation – they were made just before his agency did exactly what he described in this video, grabbing the first company he saw and issuing a groundless endangerment order, which would later be proven as such. We're hopeful that the next administrator’s decisions will be based more on actual science than the political stuff."

James Inhofe, R-Okla.

"It was only right for Administrator Armendariz to resign today, but his resignation in no way solves the problem of President Obama and his EPA’s crucifixion philosophy."

-- Jim Fuquay

 

EPA's Dallas region adminstrator Armendariz resigns

Al Armendariz, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Dallas region, has resigned after being publicly rebuked by EPA chief Lisa Jackson for saying natural gas industry polluters would be “crucified” like Roman conquerors did to their enemies. The EPA today released Armendariz’s resignation, which was sent to Jackson the day before and is effective today. In it, the former Southern Methodist University professor repeated his apology for his remarks, made at a 2010 public meeting in the small town of Dish, which had become a hub for big natural gas pipelines serving the Barnett Shale. The videotape of Armendariz making the comment recently surfaced on the Internet.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the subject, told The Associated Press
that Armendariz has since received death threats.

“As I have expressed publically [sic], and to you directly, I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator,” he wrote Jackson on Sunday. “As importantly, they do not represent the work you have overseen as EPA administrator.” On Friday, Jackson told reporters that Armendariz’s 2010 statements “don’t comport with our record.”

Armendariz was named the agency's chief for Region 6, which includes Texas and four other states, in November 2009 after writing a controversial study that said the natural gas industry’s emissions in the Barnett Shale were more than those from all the cars and trucks in the region. The industry quickly contested his conclusions and has continued to criticize his assumptions. Armendariz’s office in December 2010 issued an emergency order against Fort Worth-based Range Resources claiming that two of its Parker County wells contaminated two nearby water wells with methane, the principal component in natural gas. The company immediately contested the order, and after more than a year of skirmishes in court and before state regulators, the EPA on March 30 withdrew the order.

The agency today named Sam Coleman acting administrator for the Dallas region. He is a
career official who led the agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina and
served as Armendariz’ deputy. That announcement is here.

-- Jim Fuquay

 

One company's solution to reducing emissions

Hy-Bon, a Midland-based company that has been in the business of vapor recovery since 1952, has a simple solution to the problem of emissions from the water tanks and other production equipment that dot the Barnett Shale these days. The company makes a canister filter that it says can capture 80 percent of low-pressure emissions, condensing heavier hydrocarbon vapors until they drip back into the tank. It says the filter media lasts six months before it needs to be replaced. The issue is particularly  timely give the Environmental Protection Agency's issuance last week of new air pollution rules related to hydraulic fracturing and natural gas production.

-- Jim Fuquay

Citizens' group, but not city, finds high emissions at Colleyville drill site

A group of Colleyville and Southlake residents said Tuesday it conducted tests recently at a Barnett shale well site in Colleyville that showed emissions at unhealthy levels. Air tests conducted in early February, when Titan Operating hydraulically fractured seven wells, showed one compound, carbon disulfide, over the state's threshold for short-term health impact on Feb. 1 and 2, according to reports from the group and the Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project. Levels of two other compounds, benzene and naphthalene, were over the state's long-term limits only on Feb. 2. None of the chemicals exceeded health limits during another test Feb. 9, according to Earthworks' posted results. Earthworks posted the test results and other analysis on its web site here: www.earthworksaction.org//library.

The City of Colleyville also hired a testing company during the activity. It found no emissions above its threshold levels. The city posted those results here.

Read the Star-Telegram's developing report on the results here.

KTVT-Channel 11 posted a report on the tests here. 

-- Jim Fuquay

EPA air emissions rules for drilling start to emerge

The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules aimed at reducing pollution related to oil and gas drilling are expected to be officially released today, but some details are becoming available. For one, the industry has until 2015 to comply with requirements to use "green" completions and other practices to capture or prevent emissions. Bloomberg has an early report here.

-- Jim Fuquay

Industry pushes feds for fracking rules

A look at the back-shop workings of the regulatory process is posted here at The Hill, which details lobbying efforts by the energy industry on federal rules that will govern hydraulic fracturing on federal lands. The popular Capitol blog documents meetings between top regulators and individual companies and trade groups. Not the most exciting reading, but instructional in how the rules get written. And lest anyone think that only corporations lobby, The Hill has a companion piece on the environmental community's efforts to buck up the White House's resolve on upcoming EPA air pollution rules related to drilling.

-- Jim Fuquay

EPA proposes power plant CO2 standard

The Environmental Protection Agency has released its first limits on heat-trapping emissions from new power plants. The rules are expected to largely end the building of new coal-fired electricity generation, other than facilities using as-yet unproven carbon-capture technologies. The standard also sets the maximum permissible emissions as about the level of CO₂ emitted by a modern natural gas-fired power plant.

"The standard will check the previously uncontrolled amount (of carbon pollution) that power plants ... release into our atmosphere,” Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday in a conference call. But “it also creates a path forward for future facilities to use technology that burns coal, while releasing less carbon pollution." 

A link to the agency's explanation of the new standard is here.

-- Jim Fuquay

Fire personnel investigate natural gas release

Arlington and Mansfield fire departments investigated a natural gas release this morning at Debbie Lane near Matlock Road after residents reported a loud hissing sound and a vapor cloud blanketing their neighborhoods. Arlington fire fighters arrived at the Carrizo Oil and Gas site at 1751 E. Debbie Lane in southeast Tarrant County about 7:44 a.m. and conducted air monitoring after detecting a natural gas odor, Lt. Darrel Whitfield said. The vapor released from the site was "mostly steam with some gas and at no time was anyone in danger of being harmed," according to Mansfield Fire Chief Barry Bondurant. The Arlington Fire Department did not detect measurable amounts of gas in the residential areas close to the location, according to a Mansfield Fire Department news release. The Arlington Fire Department provided the photo above.

For more, see the Star-Telegram report here, and a follow-up editorial here.

-- Jim Fuquay