"The state asked for federal help to find oil-field emissions; the EPA found dozens of emissions and Clean Air Act violations—but in three years it has issued only two fines."
"In the fall of 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired a helicopter equipped with a leak-detecting infrared camera to criss-cross the Permian Basin looking for gaseous emissions, part of a monitoring program undertaken at the behest of and in partnership with the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). Over the course of nine days, the EPA found leaking valves, leaking hatches, leaking tank batteries and compressor stations and unlit and partially lit gas flares on wells. In all, the flights documented 111 emissions at facilities run by 24 different oil and gas companies.
In 2020, the EPA did it again, this time undertaking 15 days of flights and expanding their range to include part of the San Juan Basin in northern New Mexico. They found 244 facilities emitting gases. At least one site had five separate emission sources. Then, in March of this year, the EPA issued consent agreements with 11 companies—some of the biggest producers in the country, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Occidental—for violations of the Clean Air Act, based on the 2019 flights. Yet under those agreements, two and a half years in the making, only one company was fined for environmental violations, despite the fact that all of the companies were cited for “directly releasing emissions to atmosphere.” The EPA fined another company for a paperwork violation.
Chisholm Energy (purchased by Earthstone Energy in December) operated three wells drilled without proper state permits and received a $162,385 fine. All three wells had multiple leaks which were not noted in the settlement. BTA Oil Producers received a $75,500 fine for operating two unregistered, leaking wells. Based on estimates from the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, those wells produced oil and gas worth roughly $17 million for Chisholm and $30 million for BTA since they began production in 2018. The other 21 operators of leaking wells weren’t fined anything at all."
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