PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, December 3, 2024 (ENS) – The U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reached settlements with oil and gas operators in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to resolve alleged federal Clean Air Act and Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act violations.
In separate settlements, XTO Energy Inc. agreed to pay a $4 million civil penalty and Hilcorp Energy Company agreed to pay a $1.275 million civil penalty. Both these amounts will be shared equally by the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is a co-plaintiff in both cases.
XTO is a natural gas extraction and production company that is a directly held, wholly owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company. XTO itself became the largest natural gas producer in the United States in 2009. XTO operations stretch from the Great Plains to Appalachia. It holds interests in more than 50,000 producing oil and natural gas wells. These holdings include operations in 15 counties, covering 534,000 acres in western Pennsylvania.
Hilcorp is a privately owned company registered to do business in Pennsylvania and headquartered in Houston, Texas. Hilcorp engages in oil and gas exploration, development, and production across the United States, with active production operations in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.
“These actions are the result of our continuing efforts to ensure that oil and gas operators comply with the Clean Air Act. The commitments under the settlements will significantly reduce pollution from these companies’ operations, including volatile organic compounds that contribute to ground-level ozone, and methane, a potent greenhouse gas,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said.
Methane is not considered an air toxic, as it is not on the California Toxic Air Contaminants list, nor the California Proposition 65 list, nor is it on the U.S. EPA Hazardous Air Pollutants list. But methane is considered a climate pollutant – a greenhouse gas. It is primarily regulated through state and federal governments.
But methane exposure is a threat to human health finds a report by the Environmental Defense Fund, which states, “The ground-level smog (ozone) and soot (particulate matter) that form when methane and its co-pollutants are released, cause and exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer and stroke.” https://globalcleanair.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/95/files//Methane-and-Health_%C6%92.pdf
In addition to the civil penalties, both companies will undertake compliance measures to achieve major reductions in harmful emissions at their oil and gas production facilities in Butler County, Lawrence County, and Mercer County.
“Hilcorp and XTO Energy’s violations contributed to smog that reduces air quality, as well as methane releases that are a primary driver of near-term climate change. These settlements are the latest in EPA’s urgent efforts to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and hold corporate polluters accountable for jeopardizing public health,” Assistant Administrator David Uhlmann for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance explained.
As part of the settlement, XTO must undertake a project to mitigate harm attributable to its own alleged violations. Specifically, by December 31, 2027, XTO will be required to work with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, PADEP, to identify the heaviest polluting abandoned oil and gas wells in western Pennsylvania and spend at least $1.4 million to plug or remediate them.
Many of these so-called “orphan” wells are existing significant sources of methane.
XTO’s work is expected to result in the reduction of over 1,960 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year released as methane, similar to the reductions achieved by taking 420 cars off the road for a year.
The settlement is expected to eliminate nearly 120 tons of volatile organic compounds emitted each year.
The XTO settlement resolves allegations by EPA and PADEP that the company failed to comply with federal and state requirements to capture and control air emissions from 11 of its oil and gas production facilities in Butler County. EPA identified the alleged violations through field investigations conducted in 2018 and 2019.
“Today’s settlements reinforce a simple message: if your company contaminates the air in this district with harmful pollution, you will be held accountable under federal law,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
“Through the hard work of our office and our law enforcement partners, XTO Energy and Hilcorp will be required not only to pay penalties related to the pollutants they already released, but also to protect against future harm through compliance measures that will reduce emissions of harmful pollutants. We remain steadfast in our efforts to protect the people of western Pennsylvania and the air they breathe.”
Hilcorp must also undertake a project to mitigate harm attributable to the company’s alleged violations. Hilcorp will retrofit at least 164 pneumatic controllers that emit pollution with non-emitting process controllers at eight of the company’s facilities located in Lawrence and Mercer counties at least three years earlier than required under law.
EPA projects that the Hilcorp agreement will result in the reduction of over 160 tons of VOC emissions annually and 5,200 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year released as methane. The reductions in methane from the settlement are similar to the reductions that would be achieved by taking 1,120 cars off the road for one year.
The Hilcorp settlement resolves allegations by EPA and PADEP that the company failed to comply with federal and state requirements to capture and control air emissions from six of its oil and gas production facilities in Lawrence and Mercer counties.
As a result of these alleged violations, both XTO and Hilcorp released methane and VOCs directly into the air instead of capturing and controlling the gas using specially designed equipment. Methane, a climate super pollutant, is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, and VOCs contribute to ground-level ozone, which adversely affects human health.
“Pennsylvanians have a right to clean air, and the Shapiro Administration continues to hold polluters accountable for infringing on that right,” said Acting Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley. The settlement will result in “lower emissions and cleaner air for the people of the Commonwealth.”
Featured image: XTO well fire releasing greenhouse gases, including methane, into the atmosphere. This screengrab from helicopter footage was obtained by the Fractracker Alliance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol via a Freedom of Information Act request. Recorded February 15, 2018, it shows an explosion at a well pad owned by Exxon’s XTO Energy in Powhatan Point, Ohio not far from the western Pennsylvania wells at issue in this case. (Video courtesy The Allegheny Front)
