‘T’was the weeks before Christmas
And all through the House
All the bad bills were hoping 
To sneak through like a mouse”

           In the waning hours of the final day of the 2001-2002 Pennsylvania legislative session, the oil and gas industry made an end run for an exemption from the NPDES permit requirements for stormwater discharges associated with construction activities. Fortunately, (and despite the early morning hour) members of the House remained diligent and plucked this ill begotten Christmas present from beneath the industry’s tree. 

House Bill 2163 was an Administrative Code amendment that started its life in the wake of the tragic events of September 11^th.  As passed by the House on December 3, 2001, HB 2163 called (in part) for the creation of a catastrophic leave pool.  Under the bill, state employees could donate their leave time for use by one of their colleagues in the event that they (or their immediate family members) became seriously ill or injured. The House passed the bill unanimously and referred it to the Senate.  

Did the Senate, moved by the charity contained within the bill, pass it without delay?  No! Such a deliberative body knows better than to act on emotion when such an obvious political bargaining chip falls in its lap.  So there the bill sat, untouched for almost a year until November 25, 2002. 

           Having just passed the industry-friendly Water Resources Planning legislation, the Senate must have been feeling especially generous.  It dusted off HB 2163 and hatched a scheme to use the bill’s good will to advance the interests of one of Pennsylvania’s most undeserving charity cases – the oil and gas industry.  

          HB 2163 went through two considerations without incident, and late in the evening on November 27^th, it was presented for a third and final consideration.  But something was drastically different!  A huge, swollen parasite of an amendment was attached to the bill! 

          Reportedly written by an oil and gas industry lobby, the amendment was designed first and foremost to enable the oil and gas industry to construct well sites and build access roads without having to follow the rules that other people have to follow.  They are bothered by pesky regulatory oversight or public involvement in the permitting process.  The bill attempted to do this in three different ways. 

          First, the amendment attempted to exclude most oil and gas developments from the requirement to obtain an NPDES permit for stormwater discharges associated with construction activities (sediment discharges).  By defining the construction site as a single well site (no matter how many wells are drilled and connected by a newly constructed access road) most well site construction projects would never trigger the permit’s minimum acreage requirements! 

          For those larger well site construction projects that would still require a permit, there were still the bothersome individual permits that are needed in high quality and exceptional value watersheds.  Of course the worst part of an individual permit is the fact that the public has a right to comment on it and (gasp!) there might even be a public hearing!  This, of course is highly unacceptable for an industry used to no public involvement in its Oil and Gas Act well permit applications.  The solution?  Prohibit the use of individual permits! 

          But that still leaves the requirement to get a general NPDES permit and that pesky DEP makes applicants submit their erosion and sediment control plans for review and approval before they will issue the permit.  Just because the industry can’t figure out how to draw up a plan to keep dirt out of a stream doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to build the road first and fix the screw-ups when (or if) they get caught --- right?  The solution? If the Feds don’t make operators get their plans approved before they start rooting around like hogs for truffles then DEP can’t either! 

          Despite the fact that Senate sponsors couldn’t explain what the amendment actually did, the Senate passed the corrupted version of HB 2163 unanimously and sent it to the House shortly before midnight.  Because the House had already passed the bill a year earlier, there would be no opportunity to study the amendment.  The only action that remained was a yea or nay vote for final passage. 

We heard that the industry lobby who drafted the amendment said they simply did not have enough time to “reach out” to members of the House to explain it.  Could be.  Could also be that they would rather not display this thing in public.  After all, when this the issue was out by itself (and not tacked onto another bill) as SB 982 it never got out of the House subcommittee.  More likely was the hope that House members wouldn’t notice the cancerous amendment, wouldn’t have the political backbone to sacrifice the noble leave pool bill in the name of environmental protection, or simply wouldn’t care. 

Perhaps the fact that this Christmas stocking was overflowing was more than the House could stand.  Maybe it was the slime trail it left from the back room. Or perhaps the House was simply honoring the self-sacrificing principles contained within HB 2163 and the spirit of the time in which it was enacted.  Regardless of the reason, the House refused to let its bill be hijacked and shot it down instead by a vote of 92-102.   Hats off to the Pennsylvania House for seeing this hijack attempt for what it was.  

The back door approach was matched only by the language of the proposed amendment itself - and unfortunately the Pennsylvania Senate was only too willing to abuse the legislative process to help the industry achieve its self-serving goal.  The message this amendment sends is that the oil and gas industry does not want anyone to know just how much of a mess it is making of our streams and our public lands.  It also says that the industry thinks it is deserving of special considerations.  With that last point, we agree.  

When you consider that the Allegheny National Forest has as many active oil and gas wells in it as all other National Forests combined, and that the PA DCNR has just leased hundreds of thousands of state lands for gas well drilling, perhaps it’s time to give the Pennsylvania oil and gas industry the special attention it truly deserves! 

Unfortunately this is not over.  Calling the vote “pure politics,” an industry lobbyist says they will now start on the Pennsylvania House where they have “serious education” to do http://www.aogr.com/indust_digest.asp   We think that readers should educate their House representative and tell them that the rejection of HB 2163 (or SB 982) was a good thing and that the oil and gas industry ought to follow the law the same way all other Pennsylvanians do.

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