The Texas Railroad Commission is going through the Sunset review required every 10 years for all state agencies. If approved, the pending legislation (House Bill 2166) would: A New Name • Change the name of the agency to the Texas Energy Resources Commission. Campaign Finance Reform • Limit the ability of commissioners and candidates to accept… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Regulations
Subscribe to Regulations RSS FeedEPA Planning to Ban Coal-Fired Power Plants?
Posted in Energy Policy, RegulationsAccording to a Sunday blog post by Conn Carroll in the Washington Examiner, the EPA is hurrying efforts to implement regulations that would ban coal-fired power plants before the end of the year, in fear that a loss by President Obama in Tuesday’s election would put an end to what would otherwise be on the second-term agenda. Some will discredit that post as another example of … Continue Reading
Operators Can Be Guilty of Killing Migratory Birds
Posted in RegulationsIf a bird flies into your open-top oil storage tank – or your unprotected reserve pit – and dies, could you be guilty of the crime of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? The short answer is “ Maybe”. In United States v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., ten dead birds were discovered in storage tanks at CITGO’s Corpus Christi… Continue Reading
EPA Region 6 Has New Administrator
Posted in Energy Policy, RegulationsRon Curry is the EPA’s new administrator for Region 6, which is responsible for enforcement of federal environmental laws in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Mr. Curry replaces Al “Crucify ‘em” Armendariz, who was sacked earlier this year after comments, caught on video, in which he likened his tactics to the Romans of antiquity who supressed the villages they… Continue Reading
The Lizard that (Almost) Shut Down the Permian Basin
Posted in RegulationsBY CHANCE DECKER The oil patch breathed a collective sigh of relief on June 13 when the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would withdraw its proposal to list the dunes sagebrush lizard (which inhabits parts of eastern New Mexico and Texas’s Permian Basin) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (the ESA)…. Continue Reading
The EPA’s Flawed Energy Policy
Posted in RegulationsThe predator returns. I don’t usually forward content created by others, and I try to avoid overtly political entries, but this one is from the June 14 Daily Policy Digest of the National Center for Policy Analysis. It is worth reading if you pay attention to energy and environmental policy: “For the last three years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has… Continue Reading
Wolves and the EPA Revisited
Posted in RegulationsMy last post featured editorial kudos for the EPA’s evenhanded approach to regulation of one aspect of drilling: handling of methane and volatile organic compounds during fracking. Perhaps the accolades were premature. I speak of the recently exposed and widely distributed video of the then-new and recently-resigned EPA Region 6 director Al Armendariz invoking an inappropriate analogy to his “philosphy” of regulating oil and gas producers. If… Continue Reading
Environmental Penalties: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure
Posted in RegulationsIn my never-ending effort to improve my position in life by associating with people who are smarter and more knowledgable than I am (my wife being a notable example), this entry is by noted environmental lawyer Cynthia Bishop (cbishop@cbishoplaw.com) on a topic that is important to anyone in the energy business. If your E&P or service company is growing quickly, you could… Continue Reading
Is Your Compressor Station a Nuisance?
Posted in RegulationsIf you operate wells, gas plants and similar facilities in populated areas, address your neighbors’ concerns. This could lead to increased costs and inconvenience in operations, but it might be cheaper in the long run.