January 29, 2012 in News, Idaho, Region

Gas drillers, Idaho counties reach agreement

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BOISE, Idaho — A group representing Idaho counties and a group representing companies interested in tapping natural gas in the state announced an agreement Sunday on legislation they plan to introduce into the Idaho Legislature next month.

The Idaho Association of Counties and the Idaho Petroleum Council said the guidelines will allow counties some control over natural gas development, while natural gas wildcatters will have a clearer path to tapping fields.

But a conservation group said the agreement appears to reduce local control over industries by allowing state lawmakers to create rules that counties and cities wouldn’t be able to exceed with their own ordinances.

The proposed legislation was not released, but the news release said the legislation would allow local governments to create regulations involving exploration and processing as long as the rules didn’t prevent companies from building infrastructure.

The groups also said the proposed legislation would let local governments pass their own ordinances regulating the industry as long as those ordinances don’t conflict with state law.

“Local siting and operational issues are important to our members and to the people of Idaho,” Dan Chadwick, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties, said in a statement. “This consensus legislation promises counties and their residents that their unique insight will be an important part of our state’s growing natural gas industry.”

“This agreement is an example of what happens when reasonable people have a chance to sit down and forge compromise,” said Suzanne Budge, executive director of the Idaho Petroleum Council.

Idaho officials have been scrambling to develop new rules after natural gas discoveries in 2010 in an ancient lake bed a mile beneath the surface of Payette County, to Washington County’s south.

Natural gas wildcatters have been concerned about cities and counties passing laws that could halt development of Idaho’s emerging oil and natural gas fields. A main concern is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that some fear could harm a region’s groundwater that some rural residents rely on.

“It strikes me from this press release that the counties can’t veto anything,” Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League told The Associated Press on Sunday. “Which leads me to believe that the oil and gas industry can get whatever they want, and the counties will just have to take it. Setting all the rhetoric aside, it still sounds like, in the end, counties cannot object to proposals that they don’t like.”

Snake River Oil & Gas, which is exploring for gas in western Idaho, helped develop the legislation after Washington County proposed an ordinance with strict size limits, expensive bonds, multi-million-dollar insurance policies and restrictions on well locations, among other things.

“We are committed to Idaho, and want to make sure the public officials and citizens they represent are completely comfortable with our industry and our work,” said Richard Brown, owner of Snake River Oil & Gas, in the statement released Sunday. “This agreement provides assurances for citizens and certainty for businesses, and is a model for other states to follow.”

Industry officials said last year they were working on the legislation with the Idaho Petroleum Council. An early draft of that legislation said that “an ordinance, rule, resolution, requirement or standard of a city, county or other political subdivision of this state shall not prohibit, either actually or operationally, and shall not frustrate the siting, construction or operation of facilities” with state approval.

Hayes said it was unclear to him why the Idaho Association of Counties would back legislation that appeared to limit the power of counties in favor of state control. But he said the backing of the association could sway some state lawmakers toward approving the legislation.

“Clearly, a compromise like this makes an easy way out for legislators who had been conflicted,” he said.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  AlmaHasse on January 30 at 7:32 a.m.

  Last year was the beginning of the surgical peeling away of local control when the legislature removed the counties ability to act on any type of nuisance complaints under the revamped Right to Farm bill. This proposed bill, I suspect, is the equivalent of taking an enormous chain saw to it. What’s next— is Idaho to become the next Yucca Mountain? Or will we be the recipient of a toxic waste incinerator? How about taking all of Salt Lake City’s bio-sludge (the “left-over” product from the waste water treatment plants— I’m sure you can imagine what’s contained in that!). Where will the state draw the line? Because at this rate, the counties will have NO control over ANYTHING, except perhaps if they can fill a pothole on Main Street! I suppose we’ll see Sempra back at this rate, because why wouldn’t they? After all the citizens will soon have no say so in what happens in their own communities!

  So it’s OK for our lawmakers to complain about the “Feds” and their penchant for imposing federal laws and regulations on the states, but it’s OK for the State of Idaho to impose restrictions on the LOCAL governments/counties? What hypocrites! Any lawmaker who votes for this bill needs to get the boot this November!

  What say you?

• 

  whynot on January 30 at 9:54 a.m.

  County officials and state legislators who accept gas industry’s offer to “kindly help write regulations” and who allow themselves to be hurried into ‘passing’ those industry-based regulations and giving up local control are dangerously irresponsible.

  A simple Google search on ‘hydraulic fracturing,’ ‘fracking,’ ‘Williston’ (ND), ‘Dimock’ (PA), etc., would provide officials and legislators with a day’s worth of reading on the groundwater and air pollution people living near fracking operations are right now facing. Articles abound telling of families forced into finding water elsewhere because their home faucet water is no longer drinkable — nor can farm animals drink the water without becoming sick. And articles abound telling of gas-well air pollution forcing people from their homes and of communities overwhelmed by transient workers and industrial trucks. Idaho’s county officials and state legislators owe Idahoans much more care in studying the now-known effects of fracking before they write and pass regulations. Being ‘gung-ho industry’ is a dereliction of duty that many other states and their counties have discovered will have dire results.

  In each of the states where fracking is already happening, the industry’s game has been the same: Sweep in fast, ‘kindly offer help’ to uninformed officials trying to write regulations, get those regulations written in a way that hamstrings communities and counties, get state legislators to pass those regulations (often by passing along campaign money), sucker in local landowners by offering upfront money for surface leases, and start drilling before residents are even aware of what’s happening.

  And then, when groundwater is contaminated, air is polluted, and hundreds of transients and trucks are daily grinding through town, deny any responsibility and fight any complaints. Where drilling activity is intense, local communities with limited budgets are being stressed to provide adequate police coverage, emergency response, classroom space, housing, increased road repairs, traffic management, and much more. Rural lifestyles are transformed into industrial camps, road noise, traffic pollution, an increased number of sexual predators, drug dealing and crime.

  In Idaho, the industry has already yanked the cat out of the bag, I’m afraid. They have nudged county officials and state legislators into not doing any homework, not doing any budget forecasting for involved communities, not even simply going online to find out what’s happened in other fracking communities — in other words not taking enough serious time to protect residents, communities, and counties.

  This ‘ain’ gonna turn out good, folks.

• 

  liveinfearoftheSPD on January 30 at 3:06 p.m.

  The only “compromise” I see here is someone pushing legislation that removes citizens of their rights.

  Taking away people’s rights is not, nor should even be considered, up for compromise by any entity, especially our own government!

  Wake up People!