Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Thursday, January 6, 2011
EPA Proposes to Disapprove Weak Montana Clean Air Rules

State Regulations Would Rollback Oversight of Air Pollution from Oil and Gas Wells
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x1303

Denver—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposedto disapprove of a set of Montana air quality regulations over their failure tosafeguard clean air from oil and gas wells.

“We applaud EPA’s efforts to ensure that Montana’s airquality rules fully protect public health and welfare,” said Jeremy Nichols,Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “In the face of ramped up oil and gasdevelopment throughout the Rocky Mountain West, the last thing we can afford todo is rollback our clean air rules.”

The rules at issue would rollback air permittingrequirements for oil and gas wells in Montana. They would allow the oil and gas industry to avoid applyingfor standard air permits before construction and operation, and instead simply“register” their operations after being constructed. In a proposal published today, the EPA found the State’srules were unenforceable and that the State failed to demonstrate the rollbackwould protect clean air in accordance with the federal Clean Air Act.

“Montana’s rules fly in the face of common sense, it wouldbe like giving building permits to a contractor after a building has alreadybeen built,” said Nichols. “Protecting clean air means ensuring we have safeguards upfront to keeppollution in check before it’s released, not after it’s too late.”

The proposal comes in response to an October 2006 andNovember 2006 request by the State of Montana to approve a revision to its airquality regulations. State airquality regulations must comply with federal Clean Air Act requirements and beincorporated into a State Implementation Plan. To do so, states must obtain EPA approval of theirregulations.

If the EPA determines that state regulations areinconsistent with the Clean Air Act, states may lose their authority toimplement air quality rules and lose federal highway funding. Montana faces the choice of eitherrevising its rules to comply with the Clean Air Act or facing sanctions fromEPA.

Today’s proposal was spurred by a lawsuit filed by WildEarthGuardians over the EPA’s failure to take action on Montana’s request. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA isrequired to take action within 18 months of receiving a request from a Statefor approval of a State Implementation Plan revision. Despite being submitted in late 2006, EPA delayed takingaction on Montana’s request. Underthe terms of a settlement, the EPA agreed to take final action on Montana’srequest by February 28, 2011.

An EPA report in 2008 found that oil and gas development inMontana annually releases thousands of tons of toxic air emissions, including9,596 tons of volatile organic compounds and 13,536 tons of nitrogen oxides. This amountof nitrogen oxides equals the amount released by more than 708,000 passengervehicles in a single year (according to the EPA, a standard passenger vehiclereleases 38.2 pounds of nitrogen oxides annually).