The Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday announced a proposed settlement with PennEnergy Resources, an oil and gas development company based in Cranberry Township. If the court approves, PennEnergy will pay a $2 million civil penalty, split equally between the federal and state governments, and reduce pollution from its facilities.
“Today’s settlement reflects this office’s commitment to holding corporate citizens accountable for their wrongdoing and protecting our residents and the air they breathe,” said Eric Olshan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in a statement.
In 2018, EPA found the alleged Clean Air Act violations on 16 well pads owned by the company in Butler and Lawrence counties. Methane gas, a climate pollutant, was being directly released into the air instead of captured and controlled using specially designed equipment, along with volatile organic compounds or VOCs, which contribute to ground-level ozone or smog and can cause health problems.
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“Oil and gas producers must comply with the Clean Air Act, which is intended to control air emissions and improve air quality and our environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, in a statement. “By adhering to the requirements of today’s settlement, PennEnergy will significantly reduce air emissions from its operations.”
Under the consent decree, PennEnergy will undertake projects at 49 oil and gas facilities in Butler and Lawrence counties to “assess, modify and improve monitoring and maintenance of vapor control systems,” according to a press release sent out by the agencies.
The projects are expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by over 8,200 tons released as methane, similar to the reductions achieved by taking 1,740 cars off the road for one year. The settlement will also eliminate more than 150 tons of VOC emissions annually.
“This settlement marks a significant step toward reducing emissions and ensuring cleaner air for all residents of the Commonwealth,” said Acting Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley, in an email to The Allegheny Front.
In a written statement, PennEnergy said that it is voluntarily entering into the consent decree with the government to avoid litigation. The company notes it had just taken ownership over the oil and gas facilities in question when EPA inspected the oil and gas facilities in 2018 and identified the violations. “[T]he subject assets were acquired by the Company from another operator roughly two (2) weeks prior to the EPA inspections and before PennEnergy had the opportunity to take action to bring them up to the Company’s high operational and environmental performance standards,” the statement said.
PennEnergy said it has already been moving forward with compliance, even before the agreement is finalized, with “equipment monitoring installation projects, operator training and inspection programs,” and other efforts to ensure compliance.
PennEnergy operates approximately 370 wells at 107 oil and gas facilities located in western Pennsylvania, according to the DOJ’s press release.
