期刊名称：Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
印刷版ISSN：2375-6276
电子版ISSN：2375-6284
出版年度：2018
卷号：8
期号：1
页码：115-183
出版社：University of Michigan Law School
摘要：This Article addresses the intersection of oil and gas law and environmental law on a topic that has profound significance for the nation’s oil industry and for the environment. In this regard, the Permian Basin is experiencing a renaissance that has fundamentally impacted oil production in the United States. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing now allow the industry to produce in the Permian Basin’s unconventional shale formations in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. But, the hot shale plays within the Permian Basin exist above conventional fields that are littered with a century’s worth of abandoned wells. Fracturing new wells near improperly abandoned wells creates a risk of environmental pollution as the fracturing of the shale allows hydrocarbons to migrate within the formation, potentially to an improperly abandoned well. The American Petroleum Institute (API) recognizes the environmental pollution risks associated with hydraulically fracturing close to an abandoned well and has set forth a detailed report on the best practices that an operator could employ to mitigate this risk, but that proposal overly relies on operator discretion and judgment and lacks transparency to potentially affected parties. The Environmental Defense Fund has issued a model regulatory framework, but that report overly relies on operator actions and bright-line standards. A growing number of state agencies in oil producing states around the nation have issued regulations, but there is considerable divergence in the adopted standards. The academic work on this topic is sparse to non-existence. Thus, this Article fills an important void in the literature at an important moment. The goal of any regulatory regime should be to ensure sustainable energy development occurs in a manner that adequately addresses the environmental concerns posed by modern development activities. Because contamination and collateral consequences of pollution can have far-reaching impacts, the public has a vital public policy interest that the regulatory regimes that govern this development require the industry to utilize best practices. The Article proposes that the regulatory agency should use its expertise and operator supplied information to make a fact-based determination of the area of fracturing interest as part of the permitting process for any new well that will be hydraulically fractured. The regulatory agency then would utilize its existing data on well locations to determine what existing wells are sufficiently close to the new well that will be hydraulically fractured and then will set forth requirements for the operator to investigate that
Loading...
