Apache Settlement Shows EPA’s Oil, Gas Enforcement Crackdown
Authors:
Bloomberg Law and Bobby Magill
Date:
14 February 2024
Categories:
Air,
Enforceable Regulations,
Settlements
Language:
English
Click here for original posting.
Apache Corp. will be required to keep an independent EPA-approved watchdog in its Permian Basin oil fields to ensure the company is complying with a consent decree announced this week for air quality violations at its well pads in Texas and New Mexico.
The third-party verification system, in addition to the $4 million in penalties and $5.5 million in mitigation projects required under the decree, shows that the Environmental Protection Agency is going to be actively enforcing the law against oil and gas producers, environmental attorneys say.
“The effect it could have is to have industry ensure that they start taking a closer look at their operations to ensure they’re in compliance,” said Douglas Benevento, a partner at Holland & Hart LLP and EPA Region 8 administrator during the Trump administration.
Apache violated the Clean Air Act at 23 Permian Basin oil and gas sites in Texas and New Mexico, failing to comply with federal and state requirements to control air pollution, including methane emissions, according to EPA’s settlement with the company. The violations were discovered through flyover surveillance in 2019, 2020, and 2022.