Posted on 10/31/2013 5:54:54 AM PDT by thackney
California's lawmakers have ensured the state will remain a major oil and gas producer by approving new legislation allowing hydraulic fracturing and acid treatments to rejuvenate its ageing wells in exchange for strict controls and tougher enforcement.
Senate Bill No 4 (SB 4), which Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Sept. 20, directs the state Department of Conservation and other agencies to adopt new rules and regulations covering well construction, fracturing and other well stimulation treatments by the start of 2015.
The chemicals used will have to be disclosed to regulators and published, subject to special treatment for trade secrets. Penalties for violating certain regulations on oil and gas operations were increased from $25,000 per violation to between $10,000 and $25,000 per violation per day.
In another concession to environmental and community groups worried about the safety of fracturing and acidizing, the law directs the state's Natural Resources Agency, which focuses on environmental protection rather than oil and gas production, to conduct an independent scientific study into the hazards and risks.
The bill was approved on a largely party-line vote in the state Assembly and Senate, with Democrats providing most of the votes in favour and nearly all Republicans voting against.
Governor Brown, who has supported fracking, said in a signing statement the bill, "needs some clarifying amendments", which he hopes will be made in 2014. But the political deal is clear: the law endorses fracking and acidizing in exchange for what the governor called "strong environmental protections and transparency requirements".
Brown also directed the Department of Conservation and other agencies to develop an efficient permitting programme that "groups permits together based on factors such as known geologic conditions and environmental impacts" to expedite approvals, rather than requiring the risks of each well to be assessed individually.
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
Will this cause the whole initiative to be still-born?
I don’t think that is much different from other regulations and fines the oil/gas deal with every day.
It’s good to go. My husband works in the field and they’ve been talking about this at conferences. Regulations are tight, but Moonbeam is very much on board with it and has vetoed every anti-fracking bill that’s come through. It will bring a lot of money to California. One of the few common sense decisions Jerry Brown has made. Will wonders never cease.
There's a vast difference between $25K per violation and $25K per day. Are these summonses generally fair or are they completely arbitrary?
Sure, but I have seen per violation combined with per day for a long, long time.
Are these summonses generally fair or are they completely arbitrary?
Make enough different rules and it is almost impossible not to break some just trying to do honest work.
Now maybe if somebody would allow new refineries to be built... then we’d be getting somewhere.
We already refine more product than the US uses and export the surplus.
The problem is the oil production that goes to our refineries. Too much of that still comes from overseas.
The problem I’m referring to is that those refineries we have are operating at 94% capacity... which is actually an improvement over the 98% of just a couple of years ago. But that kind of efficiency rate is extraordinarily difficult to maintain, and is highly susceptible to interruptions for accidents or other concerns.
In short, a couple more facilities would serve to both stabilize prices, and handle the new domestic oil sources we’re producing.
How does CA's fracking regs compare to Texas's fracking regs? Or another state's reg? Or Europe's fracking regs?
So when they disclose, do they have to disclose before or after they frack? Are they allowed to not disclose proprietary compounds. If so, must they disclose proprietary compounds to the regulators but not to the public?
Refineries are built to be run continuously at their design point. Pipes, Pumps, heaters, vessels are sized for a flow rate to maintain continuously until a scheduled shutdown, often every 5 years or so.
Typically, when the nation refineries run at 90% capacity, it is due to 10% of the total capacity shutdown, not turning down most individual refineries to 90% of their design flow.
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