Feds agree to coordinate on air quality

A trio of federal agencies has signed an agreement aimed at standardizing its approach for measuring the potential impacts of oil and gas development on air quality.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed a memorandum of understanding on June 23 that guides agencies within those departments as they complete environmental assessments of development projects required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

The 17-page document lays out best practices based on those used to clear a deadlock on the Greater Natural Buttes Area Gas Development in the Uintah Basin in Utah.

Those best practices include a commitment to collaborate throughout the NEPA process, procedures for deciding when certain air quality analyses and modeling are appropriate and a dispute resolution process to quickly resolve disagreements among the agencies.

“Today’s agreement will align federal agencies so that oil and natural gas development in the United States is achieved in a way that also protects important environmental resources,” EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe said in a prepared statement. “Working with our federal partners, we are committed to delivering an environmental review process that is both transparent and comprehensive, supporting responsible domestic energy production on federal lands while ensuring environmental protection.”

Air quality permits have been a major source of delay for development projects in Alaska, particularly an effort by Shell Oil to explore in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

In a radio address in May, President Obama promised to streamline the federal permitting process as a way to shrink delays and promote development of domestic oil and gas.

—Eric Lidji