American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2017 - 93

Better days are under way for PIOGA
and the industry it serves, indicates PIOGA Chairman Gary Slagel, government
affairs specialist at Steptoe & Johnson
PLLC in Canonsburg, Pa. PIOGA held
its annual meeting Oct. 5 at the DoubleTree Pittsburgh-Cranberry in Mars, Pa.

Mcf, he said.
"It's a really big credit, especially at a
time when conventional producers are
getting low prices and usually not making
much of anything. It's something we
didn't expect," he asserted.
The uncertainly, he reported, dealt
with efforts to reform the federal tax
code. The last overhaul to the federal tax
code occurred in 1986, Nestor recalled,
so it was unclear whether the current
effort would be successful and what provisions it might include.
According to Bob Beatty of "O" Ring
CNG Fuel Systems, while the Pipeline
and Natural Gas Market Development
Committee deals with a tremendous range
of topics, from gas-electric coordination
to pipeline expansion to encouraging
more natural gas use in manufacturing,
the group's mission boils down to two
simple mandates: "Find new burner tips
and find new members."
As examples of the committee's varied
interests, he detailed PIOGA efforts to
convince officials to direct Pennsylvania's
share of federal settlement funds stemming
from Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal toward grants for projects that result
in greater natural gas use for highway
and off-highway vehicles. He also told
of the committee's involvement in a
demonstration project to convert a Pittsburgh region river towboat from diesel
to liquefied natural gas.
Joyce Turkaly, PIOGA's director of
natural gas market development, gave
members an idea of the broad scope of
her work, much of it in support of the
Pipeline and Gas Market Development
Committee. Promoting new and expanded

uses for natural gas takes Turkaly to conferences, field trips to facilities, contacts
with state and federal agencies, and public
meetings in support of projects such as
Shell's ethane cracker plant in the works
in Beaver County, Pa. She encouraged
members to not only get involved in the
committee, but also "to communicate
with us frequently."
Reporting on the Safety Committee,
Bryan McConnell of Tenaska Inc. conceded, "Safety is not one of those sexy
topics." However, safety is at the core of
everything the industry does, he added.
Most of the committee's meetings are
spent sharing-lessons learned in the wake
of incidents and near-misses, best practices
and information about changes to safetyoriented laws and regulations.
"The only way we can learn about
things is by sharing those experiences,"
McConnell said. The committee also organizes technical training opportunities
offered as part of the PIOGATech Series.
Environmental Committee co-chairs
Paul Hart of Fluid Recovery Services
LLC and Ken Fleeman of ABARTA Energy provided a glimpse of the group's
many critical matters. Hart declared that
the committee and the expertise of its
members were among PIOGA's most
valuable tools. He indicated that individuals involved in other organizations' environmental committees had told him
none were as effective as PIOGA's and
all fell short of its wealth of knowledge.
According to Fleeman, another of the
committee's important tasks is providing
technical training for the PIOGA membership. The committee organized PIOGATech events about air emissions compliance, endangered species, water and
waste issues, aboveground storage tanks
and respirable silica. He said the committee
always was looking for technical training
topics to address.
Legal and Legislative Challenges
PIOGA Vice President and General
Counsel Kevin Moody said his presentation easily could fill half a day-or twice
that. "Almost everything we deal with
can involve litigation," he explained, making it necessary for PIOGA to pick and
choose its battles and to coordinate legal
efforts with other organizations.
Among cases in which the association
had been involved directly, Moody asserted
that the challenge by Snyder Brothers Inc.
and PIOGA of the Pennsylvania Public
Utility Commission's treatment of lowproduction unconventional wells in levying
the Act 13 impact fee was a big victory.
The case, decided in March by the Commonwealth Court, hinged on the interpretation of the word "any," he explained.

PIOGA Director of Natural Gas Market
Development Joyce Turkaly discusses
the work PIOGA's Pipeline and Gas Market Development Committee is doing to
promote natural gas use.

Wells incapable of producing more than
90 Mcf of natural gas in any calendar
month are exempt from the impact fee.
The court agreed with PIOGA and member
company Snyder Brothers that "any" means
"one," while the PUC incorrectly argued
that the word meant "all" or "every." The
PUC is appealing the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
In another case involving a member
company, Moody reported, PIOGA has
been working alongside Pennsylvania
General Energy in the company's challenge
of a "Community Bill of Rights" ordinance
that prohibits disposal of oil and gas
wastewater in Grant Township, Indiana
County. Moody explained that the local
law, drafted and defended by the Community Environmental Legal Defense
Fund, essentially claims that a municipality
"is its own little country and can pick or
choose the laws it wants to obey." The
case in federal court is moving slowly
but in the right direction.
Moody also highlighted a rule making
by the Independent Regulatory Review
Commission. According to Moody, it is
clear that the Regulatory Review Act requires agencies to submit all proposed
forms along with a rule making-something
that did not occur with the Department
of Environmental Protection's Chapter
78/78A regulations. As part of an IRRC
rule making that is due Dec. 28, the commission has adopted a resolution that
agrees with PIOGA's position, giving the
association hope about the regulations'
final outcome.
Meanwhile, suggested Dick Gmerek
of PIOGA's lobbying firm Gmerek Government Relations, the state capitol is
coming to resemble Groundhog Day, with
late budgets year after year, a lack of adequate funding for the budgets that pass
NOVEMBER 2017 93

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2017

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