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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 23-993

PROPOSED RULEMAKING

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD

Acceptance of Recommendation

[53 Pa.B. 3973]
[Saturday, July 29, 2023]

 On July 11, 2023, the Environmental Quality Board (Board) accepted the Department of Environmental Protection's (Department) recommendation to deny a petition for rulemaking. This decision is in response to a petition submitted by the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Earthworks, PennFuture, Protect Penn-Trafford and the Mountain Watershed Association requesting that the Board amend the Department's regulations at 25 Pa. Code § 78.302 (relating to requirement to file a bond) to require full-cost bonding for conventional oil and gas wells by increasing bond amounts to $38,000 for each new or active conventional oil and gas well drilled after April 18, 1985, and setting blanket bonds to the sum of total per well bond amounts.

 The decision to accept the recommendation to deny the petition was based on a report prepared by the Department and subsequent comments provided by the petitioner. The Department determined, and the Board concurred, that the Board no longer had the statutory authority to take the requested action after the enactment of the act of July 19, 2022 (P.L. 1622, No. 96) explicitly suspended the Board's authority to make any changes to individual or blanket bond amounts for conventional wells for 10 years.

 The previously-referenced recommendation is accessible on the Department's web site at https://www.dep.pa.gov (select ''Public Participation,'' then ''Environmental Quality Board,'' then ''2023 Meetings'').

RICHARD NEGRIN, 
Chairperson

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 23-993. Filed for public inspection July 28, 2023, 9:00 a.m.]


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