It will take some time to fully digest the EPA’s new rule governing emissions from oil and natural gas production, including hydraulic fracturing, but it’s clear the agency heard industry’s concerns and worked to improve the regulation from its preliminary version.

Significantly, companies will have until 2015 to comply with some of the requirements of the new rule. Industry had maintained more time was needed to develop the equipment needed for compliance and to train workers to use it. Howard Feldman, API’s director of regulatory and scientific affairs on the final rule:

“The industry has led efforts to reduce emissions by developing new technologies that were adopted in the rule.  EPA has made some improvements in the rules that allow our companies to continue reducing emission... more »

There has been a lot of good analysis of the president’s latest pursuit of alleged manipulation in the oil trading markets. The Council on Foreign Relations’ Blake Clayton makes a number of good points here, and energy blogger Robert Rapier notes the two-way risk inherent in commodities trading, here.

What’s clear is that the president’s concern isn’t new (see 2008, 2009 and 2011), and that White House officials had trouble connecting today’s announcement with anything substantive, as can be seen in a succession of tweets by Yahoo! News’ White House correspondent, Olivier Knox:

“White House punts on whether today's Pres Obama announcement re: oil speculation would have any impact on gas prices. (cont’d)”

“(cont'd) "We would leave that to outside analysts to disentangle,” senio... more »

A follow-up to our follow-up on a Washington Post article that dismissed the effects of increased U.S. oil production on global crude oil markets. The story also took shots at the oil and natural gas industry’s ability to create jobs, as well as industry assertions about the potential effect of a new gasoline standard on refineries.

Let’s start with jobs. A Wood Mackenzie study released last fall said that with the right policies the oil and natural gas industry could create 1.4 million new jobs by 2030. Here’s what the job-creation growth looks like in a chart from that study:

As it has done in previous articles, the Post suggested the projection isn’t valid because it includes direct, indirect and “induced” jobs – “everything from day-care workers to valets to rocket scientists.... more »

Credit where credit’s due: The White House issued an executive order Friday creating an interagency working group to coordinate the administration’s review of hydraulic fracturing. It’s a welcome step considering what was developing – a regulatory mishmash wrought by the 10 separate federal agencies that were looking at fracking rules and policies. API President and CEO Jack Gerard:

“We’re pleased that the White House recognizes the need to coordinate the efforts of the 10 federal agencies that are reviewing, studying or proposing new regulations on natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing. We have called on the White House to rein in these uncoordinated activities to avoid unnecessary and overlapping federal regulatory efforts and are pleased to see forward progress.”

Th... more »

A year ago this week the FracFocus.org online chemical disclosure registry was created, and what a year it has been: 130 companies logging in the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of more than 15,000 wells. More than that, the site is information rich on fracking, groundwater protection, state regulatory efforts and more.

The registry was developed by the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.  Most importantly, it has been embraced by the oil and natural gas industry as a useful response to legitimate questions about the pressurized fluids – 99.5 percent water and sand, 0.5 percent chemicals – used to fracture subterranean shale formations, freeing natural gas and oil.

According to a report in The Oklahoman, the site has become... more »