Legislative matters, regulatory issues, and the science question, revisited.
Both the Texas and New Mexico legislative sessions are in full swing. Both legislatures are full of new faces. In Texas, there are over 40 freshmen House members. PBPA hosted a luncheon for these new Texas house members last month the day before the session began. House Energy Chairman Jim Keffer, along with Vice Chairman Myra Crownover, led the luncheon discussion about the oil and gas industry in general and the Railroad Commission in particular.
Newly elected Commissioner Christi Craddick attended along with Commissioner Porter and Chairman Smitherman. The effort was designed to inform the new members about the role of the Railroad Commission in regulating our industry.
One of the key issues this session will be Railroad Commission Sunset. Although not likely as contentious as last session, the future of the Railroad Commission is at stake and therefore oil and gas regulations are as well.
If you haven’t heard, for the first time in our 50-year history, PBPA has opened up an Austin office. David Holt, a veteran of both the oil business as well as the capitol, is heading our efforts there. This is a great step for PBPA and is already showing great results by having someone on the ground in Austin full time.
I would also like to welcome our newest PBPA addition, Brianne Womble. Brianne will be our membership director and will help with our events.
Back to the Railroad Commission for a moment. PBPA submitted informal comments on Rule 13 which deal with casing, cementing, and completion requirements. These comments were due by noon on January 2nd.
PBPA commended the Commission for the numerous changes that it has made to this proposed rulemaking. We very much appreciate the time and effort invested by the Commission and Commission staff to communicate with industry in an attempt to make these proposed rules more workable for the industry. However, for the several reasons, we respectfully suggested that this proposed rulemaking was not yet ready for either adoption or republication.
PBPA supports strong rules that are protective of human health, the environment, and specifically, groundwater. PBPA agrees that Texas should have the best rules in the nation—if not the earth—for the protection of groundwater. However, PBPA believes that the rules should be based on science and facts and, to the greatest extent possible, should be workable for industry while still providing protection of groundwater. PBPA reiterates that the Railroad Commission of Texas and the oil and gas industry have a virtually spotless record regarding the protection of groundwater from hydraulic fracturing. The evidence shows that the current rules are working exceedingly well.
We also commented that if the Commission believes that it would be useful to examine its current rules, industry practices, geologic conditions, and the status of groundwater protection, then PBPA would welcome that examination and we would volunteer to be part of the process. We respectfully suggest that the examination should be conducted first in a scientific manner with the gathering of facts and evidence prior to the drafting of proposed rules. With deference, it appears that the current proposed rulemaking was conducted before the gathering of actual evidence and the application of science to support the proposals.
Lesser Prairie Chicken
Last November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its proposal to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as Threatened. To us, Threatened is not much better for industry than Endangered.
We are conducting a thorough review of the scientific literature and intend to point out that the “best available science” does not demonstrate that the Chicken merits this level of protection. State wildlife agencies have been successfully managing the Chicken and its habitat for decades.
PBPA has been working to develop a Conservation Plan in collaboration with several oil and gas associations, whose members operate in the lesser prairie chicken range, and a coalition of more than a dozen oil and gas companies ranging in size from some of the largest to some very small companies.
Additionally, we have been working with state wildlife agencies from the five states of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado.
The party this coalition prefers to manage the Conservation Plan is the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA). The oil and gas coalition feels by having WAFWA hold the permit from the USFW, the responsibility for managing the species stays within the hands of the states, and thus will maximize the amount of resources hitting the ground.