Activists Urge EPA To Revise State Air Plan To Cut Shale Drilling Emissions

摘要

Environmentalists are urging EPA to force revisions to Pennsylvania's air quality plan for meeting agency air standards in order to impose controls on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, warning that the plan fails to address the emissions and raising the prospect of a lawsuit if EPA fails to respond to their concerns. As part of a broader campaign seeking strict emissions limits and other controls on natural gas operations, activists say that Pennsylvania's state implementation plan (SIP) needs a major overhaul. EPA should force the state to revise the plan to include measures to improve monitoring near drill sites, update emissions inventories to better address releases from drilling, narrow exemptions for small sources and account for impacts to downwind areas, activists say. If EPA fails to force Pennsylvania to make changes to its SIP and activists sue, it could provide a novel venue for environmentalists in their ongoing bid to impose strict emissions controls on oil and gas operations. EPA in a Sept. 1 Federal Register notice proposed to approve the state's infrastructure SIP, detailing how the state will attain EPA's 1997 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and 2006 fine paniculate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details. (Doc ID: 2379580)