House Committee Takes on Oil and Gas Legislation.

OnThursday afternoon, the House Resources & Conservation Committee took testimony on several bills dealing with oil and gas exploration.  H462 put the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) in charge of safety inspections for the gathering pipelines.  Gathering lines are pipelines and other fixtures used to transport, deliver, or distribute natural gas or crude oil from a well-head to ultimately a transmission line or mainline.  IPUC has the program and inspectors because they do safety inspections on main transmission lines.  There was no one to offer testimony and the committee sent it to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation.

H460 amends existing code to increase the permit fee for drill permit applications from $100 to $2,000 to cover the additional costs of permitting since there is no production yet to pay for the program.   There was no testimony and it was also sent to the House floor with a do-pass.

The next two bills (H463, H379) which updated definitions listed in the code governing oil and gas production and proposed updated penalty amounts; and updated the tax code with applies to oil and gas production also passed by voice vote and without any testimony being offered.

Then came H464 which is meant to clarify existing law to:

• Provide uniformity and consistency in regulation of oil and gas production in Idaho;

•Clarify the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s authority over oil and gas exploration and production;

•Clarify local governments’ role in oversight of the oil and gas industry;

•Provide for mitigation of negative impacts to existing water rights or usable water resources;

•Align the definition of injection wells with the Federal 2006 Energy Policy Act.

Rep.Andrus opened questioning by the committee referring to hundreds of e-mails against injection wells and fracking which the committee has received and asked about the injection well issues.  Suzanne Budge with the Idaho Petroleum Council pointed out that Idaho has not been delegated by EPA to administer a Class 2 injection well program  These are regulated by the EPA as outlined in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.    Committee members asked very specific questions about the legislation dealing with waste water disposal,clarifications of the role of the state and local government in the permitting process; protection of drinking water and then opened the floor to public testimony

Mostof the 25 people signed up to testify opposed to the bill.  Testimony against the bill revolved around lack of local control and short public comment periods under county administrative permitting procedures. The bill was seen as an attempt to short circuit a Washington county ordinance that has not been finalized.  Others felt the language of the bill was vague and set precedents that co-opted local control and local land use planning. 

Commissioners Larry Church and Marc Shigeta from Payette County supported the legislation because,they said, counties do not have the expertise to deal with gas and oil production.  They also pointed out that the bill required notification of county government and sharing of all documents concerned with permitting.  Two commissioners from Washington County opposed the bill.

Many of those who testified so passionately against the bill had also testified passionately against the rules that resulted from the negotiated rulemaking during the summer and fall.  Some had participated in the meetings but others objected that the rules were done without enough stakeholder input.

When one gentleman testified about a specific phase in the legislation as sounding like something that came from communist Russia, a legislator pointed out to him that that particular phrase was not new but has been in that section of Idaho Code for a number of years.

The testimony lasted until 5:00 pm at which time the committee voted unanimously with a voice vote to send the bill to the House floor with a “do pass”recommendation.  And industry pledged to bring legislation next year if corrections were needed.