Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
On Friday, March 24, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and TransCanada Corporation jointly announced that DOS has issued a Presidential Permit, which gives the company federal approval to construct, connect, operate, and maintain the Keystone XL pipeline.
An information collection request (ICR) sent by the Obama EPA, which sought data on methane emissions from existing oil and gas (O&G) facilities, has been withdrawn by Administrator Scott Pruitt. In a brief notice, Pruitt says the ICR is being withdrawn because the “EPA would like to assess the need for the information the Agency […]
Between 2010 and 2014, nine workers in the oil and gas industry died of what were initially determined to be “natural causes.” But the explanation was unsatisfactory—the men were young and healthy and had been found dead for no apparent reason after working alone, either gauging fluid levels or drawing samples from oilfield tanks.
There is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing has been causing earthquakes to the extent the public and the media seem to believe, but the link does appear to exist. Most recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reports that between three and five “micro” earthquakes in three towns were likely caused by fracking at […]
Last Friday, the House voted 221 to 191 to nullify the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule (November 18, 2016, FR) to limit venting, flaring, and leaking from oil and gas (O&G) operations on public land. The House exercised its authority under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to kill this major Obama-administration environmental regulation […]
On Tuesday, January 24, 2017, President Trump issued three presidential memorandums and one Executive Order (EO) that collectively may change the federal approach to permitting and constructing energy pipelines and other infrastructure projects in the United States. Two memorandums overrule decisions by the Obama administration not to permit construction of the U.S. portion of TransCanada’s […]
The Trump administration has unveiled its new energy plan. Following in Trump’s inauguration theme, “America First,” the plan sets forth the administration’s new commitment to home-grown energy independence to assist job growth for American workers. The plan discusses the elimination of policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the United States […]
The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a scoping report that is the first step in a process that will produce a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) in 2019 on the management of coal leasing on public land, says the BLM. The intent of the report is to present […]
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) jointly announced the proposed final plan for offshore oil and gas (O&G) leases for 2017–2022. According to the BOEM, the proposed final plan makes available areas containing approximately 70 percent of the economically recoverable resources in the U.S. outer continental shelf […]
In one of its major end-of-year actions, the EPA on Wednesday, released its final renewal fuel standards (RFS) for 2017 and, for biomass-based diesel, for 2018. The Agency increased the RFS percentages across all categories of biofuels, an action that was welcomed by RFS advocates and criticized by the petroleum industry as burdening consumers with […]