News

The Obama administration has released its final Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG) for oil and gas production, and as we’ve noted before, it is officially going through with its plan to eliminate an exemption for low producing oil and gas wells (marginal wells), even though it originally intended to exempt these wells due to the enormous economic consequences and the fact that their emissions are negligible.

It was this elimination of the exemption for marginal wells specifically, which caused the anti-fracking group, Clean Air Task Force (CATF), to praise EPA.  As Politico reported yesterday after the decision was made official,

The green group Clean Air Task Force praised EPA for removing an exemption for lower-producing wells from the draft guidelines it released earlier this year. The final version of the rules, still not officially posted on EPA’s website, seeks more data on those lower-producing wells before deciding how to proceed.

“It’s critical that EPA move forward swiftly to close this loophole and ensure the guidelines provide comprehensive protection for communities across the country,” CATF advocacy director Conrad Schneider said.

CATF, in their efforts to stop fracking across the country, specifically lobbied EPA to remove the planned exemption for marginal wells based on dubious science (more on that in a minute).

The implications of this decision will not be marginal, however. Thousands of family-owned businesses across the country operate marginal wells — smaller wells that produce 15 barrels or less per day, or 90,000 cubic feet or less of natural gas per day. These businesses have faced the biggest challenges in today’s low commodity price environment; now under EPA’s rules many of these small companies could essentially be wiped out.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s (IOGCC) released a report last y...