WildEarth Guardians

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 proposed to disapprove of a set of Montana air quality regulations over their failure to safeguard clean air from oil and gas wells.

“We applaud EPA’s efforts to ensure that Montana’s air quality 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 gas development throughout the Rocky Mountain West, the last thing we can afford to do is rollback our clean air rules.”  

The rules at issue would rollback air permitting requirements for oil and gas wells in Montana.  They would allow the oil and gas industry to avoid applying for 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’s rules were unenforceable and that the State failed to demonstrate the rollback would protect clean air in accordance with the federal Clean Air Act. 

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

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

If the EPA determines that state regulations are inconsistent with the Clean Air Act, states may lose their authority to implement air quality rules and lose federal highway funding.  Montana faces the choice of either revising its rules to comply with the Clean Air Act or facing sanctions from EPA.

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

An EPA report in 2008 found that oil and gas development in Montana annually releases thousands of tons of toxic air emissions, including 9,596 tons of volatile organic compounds and 13,536 tons of nitrogen oxides.  This amount of nitrogen oxides equals the amount released by more than 708,000 passenger vehicles in a single year (according to the EPA, a standard passenger vehicle releases 38.2 pounds of nitrogen oxides annually).