2016 Starts with a Bang: A Review of Major Environmental and Energy Developments This Year to Date - February 2, 2016
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Technical Advisory Board (“TAB”), the body that is supposed
to be a partner in making such rules, was fired and replaced.
A new separate advisory board for unconventional oil and
gas development was created. They actually disapproved the
reworked package. But the administration went ahead anyway
and the EQB, which is hardly independent of any administration,
approved the rules.
DEP and the industry differ wildly on the prospective costs of the
new regulatory regime. DEP said the maximum annual cost for
unconventional operators would be $31 million, with a maximum
initial cost of $73 million.
But an industry estimate pegs the costs at $2 billion—with no corresponding environmental benefit. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission (“IRCC”) was so struck by this difference that it commented that there must be some basic misunderstanding about what the new Chapter 78 package even involves. The process may leave the Chapter 78 package vulnerable. DEP made what some have said are substantial changes to the package in April 2015 via Advanced Notice of Final Rulemaking (“ANFR”). Some examples cited were a new definition of “other critical communities,” new standards for centralized storage tanks, site remediation provisions, prohibition of use of centralized wastewater impoundments, and noise mitigation. Indeed, DEP in the ANFR admitted that it contained new and significant changes to the pending proposed rules. An ANFR is a mechanism used for DEP to comment on comments to the original proposed regulations, not to make new substantive rules.
So there is a real question about whether the new Chapter 78 Rules are proper under the Regulatory Review Act. All of this, and still 10 months left in 2016! Reprinted with permission from the February 26, 2016, edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2016 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-257-3382, reprints@ alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com. For additional information, please contact: Michael L.
Krancer 215.569.5535 | 412.515.1522 MKrancer@BlankRome.com Margaret Anne Hill 215.569.5331 | 202.772.5811 | MHill@BlankRome.com Frank L. Tamulonis III 215.569.5725 | FTamulonis@BlankRome.com www.blankrome.com .
But an industry estimate pegs the costs at $2 billion—with no corresponding environmental benefit. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission (“IRCC”) was so struck by this difference that it commented that there must be some basic misunderstanding about what the new Chapter 78 package even involves. The process may leave the Chapter 78 package vulnerable. DEP made what some have said are substantial changes to the package in April 2015 via Advanced Notice of Final Rulemaking (“ANFR”). Some examples cited were a new definition of “other critical communities,” new standards for centralized storage tanks, site remediation provisions, prohibition of use of centralized wastewater impoundments, and noise mitigation. Indeed, DEP in the ANFR admitted that it contained new and significant changes to the pending proposed rules. An ANFR is a mechanism used for DEP to comment on comments to the original proposed regulations, not to make new substantive rules.
So there is a real question about whether the new Chapter 78 Rules are proper under the Regulatory Review Act. All of this, and still 10 months left in 2016! Reprinted with permission from the February 26, 2016, edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2016 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-257-3382, reprints@ alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com. For additional information, please contact: Michael L.
Krancer 215.569.5535 | 412.515.1522 MKrancer@BlankRome.com Margaret Anne Hill 215.569.5331 | 202.772.5811 | MHill@BlankRome.com Frank L. Tamulonis III 215.569.5725 | FTamulonis@BlankRome.com www.blankrome.com .
