Northeast States' Modeling Could Spur Precedential Gas Drilling Air Rules

摘要

Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic air regulators are taking early steps to calculate air pollution from growing natural gas drilling operations to produce data that could be the basis for regional model rules to cut drilling emissions, setting a potential precedent for drilling regulation while EPA weighs whether to expand its limited air rules for the sector. The Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), representing state air officials from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, is launching the effort to characterize the type and volume of pollutants emitted by natural gas wells as part of its broader effort to identify sources of ozone pollution to regulate. OTC states face major problems complying with EPA's ozone standards because much of their ozone pollution comes from upwind states outside their jurisdiction. OTC's effort is not the first attempt to estimate natural gas drilling's emissions, as emission inventories have already been undertaken in mountain West states such as Wyoming where drilling pollution is already associated with high ozone levels, and in Texas, where drilling is commonplace on the Barnett Shale formation.