According to a new Government Accounting Office (GAO) report released in September, actual and planned retirements of coal-fired power plants has accelerated due to new U.S. EPA rules and regulations and other market forces.
Back in 2012, GAO performed an analysis of projected closure of coal plants due to four new EPA rules:
This past summer the Ohio General Assembly passed House Bill 59 which changed various aspects of the regulatory approach toward oil & gas waste material management. One aspect dealt with under H.B. 59 was the regulation of oil & gas related waste that may be considered technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM). H.B. 59
On April 17th, EPA issued new rules designed to reduce air emissions from oil & gas operations, including wells drilling using hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). The new federal standards (New Source Performance Standards -NSPS) are seen as the first significant new federal regulation governing fracking.
Some may wonder how gas wells generate air emissions. When
On April 13th, President Obama issued an Executive Order creating a federal inter-agency task to coordinate efforts on oversight of horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. Method such as hydraulic fracturing (i.e. "fracking") have allowed access to massive new deposits of natural gas bring the price down for natural gas to
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Right now there is no other topic in Ohio that generates more news coverage than horizontal gas drilling (or "fracking"). It seems a day doesn’t go by without a new news story regarding fracking or related developments.
Ohio has seen oil & gas wells installed for well over a hundred years. However, until recently huge
On March 28th, U.S. EPA released its highly controversial rulemaking which establishes a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission limit on new coal-fired power plants. All future coal-fired power plants will have to utilize an unproven technology, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), to meet the emission limits. CCS involves capturing CO2 and injecting it deep beneath the earth’s
In anticipation of an influx of shale gas drilling operations coming to the State, Ohio EPA decided to try and get ahead of the curve by developing an expedited permit to cover air emissions from such operations.
On February 1st, Ohio EPA issued a final air pollution general permit to cover production operations at shale
U.S. EPA finally issued its long awaited air pollution regulation aimed at reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants- Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). MATS sets specific numeric emission standards for mercury and other air toxics from coal-fire power plants 25 megawatts in size or larger.
MATS will apply to some 1,400 generating units across
There was an excellent article in the New York Times discussing the issues homeowners and landowners are facing when signing oil & gas leases- Learning Too Late of the Perils in Oil & Gas Leases.
The Times reviewed 111,000 oil & gas leases from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York Texas and West Virginia. It found
Hydraulic fracking provides the opportunity to tap into massive natural gas reserves which is located deep beneath the earth. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, Marcellus and Utica Shale is sedimentary rock which contains huge quantities of natural gas.
Hydraulic fracking uses water injected at high pressure to break up the rock allowing the gas to be released into wells. The process uses