Enforcing Ozone Standard in Wyoming Means Cutting Natural Gas Pollution

Unlike Texas, Wyoming’s Governor actually recommended that his shale-producing counties be included in smog “non-attainment areas” because of the pollution from gas industry sources. The EPA has agreed and now will draw boundaries for one of the most unique such areas in the entire country. That’s because unlike DFW and just about every metropolitan area in the country, ozone levels in Wyoming’s rural Green River Basin peak between January and March when Volatile Organic Compounds and Nitrogen Oxides from the gas industry combine with bright sunshine, snow on the ground, and temperature inversions to create the ideal conditions for ozone to form in large concentrations. 2011 was an especially smoggy year for Green River Basin residents, with levels exceeding the worst days in Los Angeles. Inclusion in an official ozone non-attainment area will now make gas industry sources the target of systematic pollution reductions via the same kind of controls that have been around for years, but which have yet to be adopted wholesale by industry or completely mandated by EPA. Despite the almost torturous incrementalism, this designation in Wyoming is proof that these local plans can force reductions from sources before national regulations catch-up to make them uniform. This is exactly the strategy Downwinders has been successfully using in the DFW air quality planning process since 1995, first to reduce emissions of the Midlothian cement plants, then including power plants, and a host of other sources. This past year we argued that the increase in emission from gas sources warranted new controls on all Barnett Shale operations in North Texas. We didn’t win that fight, but we didn’t win the cement plant fight the first time out in the 1990’s either. We won’t stop trying because in Texas, these federal plans are one of the few ways for citizens to affect their air quality future.