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POLITICAL UPDATE
Tulsa World: Term limits leave 30 seats up for grabs in Legislature. The Oklahoma Legislature will see significant turnover after the next session. Term limits mean 12 Democrats and 18 Republicans will not be able to seek re-election. In addition, a handful of other lawmakers not facing term limits have said they will not seek another term. They include Rep. Charlie Joyner, R-Midwest City, Rep. James Lockhart, D-Heavner, Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa, and Sen. Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater.
eCap: DPS Commissioner says state could provide Real ID compliant and non-compliant licenses. The Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday during a hearing on conformity with the REAL ID Act that he would like to see the state give Oklahomans the choice between REAL ID compliant and non-compliant driving licenses. The hearing was called by Rep. Lewis Moore, R-Arcadia, and Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville. It was an extension of Moore's Interim Study H15-027, which in part looked at state compliance with the federal REAL ID Act of 2005. The state passed a law in 2007 preventing it from reaching full compliance with the Act due to privacy concerns.
If you are in the Oklahoma City area, you are invited to join U.S. Senator James Lankford for a Community Conversation, on Monday, November 23, at 6:00 p.m., at OSU-OKC, located at 900 N Portland Ave, in Oklahoma City, in the Student Center Conference Room (third floor). Please feel free to share with your colleagues and employees. These public forums with our federal representatives are a great opportunity to remind officials what the oil and gas industry faces from the federal government on a daily basis.
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SEISMIC NEWS
Early Thursday morning, a series of sizable of earthquakes were felt across Oklahoma and in parts of Kansas and Texas, according to various reports. An earthquake registering 4.7 was located near Cherokee, OK. This is the largest earthquake since 2011. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission quickly issued a directive on Thursday for 2 disposal wells to stop operations and for 23 others to reduce disposal volumes. Other wells have been placed on notice for possible future action. (Tulsa World, KOCO reports)
Late Thursday evening the OCC issued an additional directive for the Crescent area. Four disposal wells will be shut in, and additional volume reductions will be announced today, Friday, November 20.
Earlier this week, following larger earthquakes in NW Oklahoma felt in Oklahoma and Kansas last weekend, Oklahoma Corporation Commission staff issued a directive with an attached map for two wells in the area of interest. This earthquake map will give you a view of the state with the latest activity.
Media coverage of 4.3 earthquake near Fairview, OK spread from Oklahoma to Kansas: News9, Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital-Journal
OSHA
This week the Federal OSHA unveiled a public review draft of their updated Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines. According to OSHA this document has been years in the making and represents their best thinking and experiences from employers that have successfully adopted safety and health management systems (SHMS) focused on identifying, assessing, preventing, and controlling workplace hazards.
In order to make the guidelines as effective and useful as possible, OSHA is requesting stakeholders and experts to send their comments about the guidelines. The guidelines and a link to the open docket to which comments can be submitted are here.
In addition, the guidelines will be a focus of a meeting on Worker Health and Safety in a Changing Workforce, which will be held on Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 from 2:15 PM to 4:15 PM at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Ave, NE Washington D.C. 20002. If you are interested in attending, you are encouraged to register immediately since space is very limited. To register, go to here.
ESA
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Voluntary Program. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) is encouraging oil and gas companies to enroll oil and gas leases and pipelines in a voluntary program to help conserve the lesser prairie-chicken. Because of a Sept. 1, 2015, federal court decision that vacated protection of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act, WAFWA's Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances is now open for new enrollments of oil and gas leases and pipelines.
Why Oklahoma’s High Plains Are Turning Into a Sea of Juniper. Inverse. There’s juniper everywhere. And it’s eating up the plain. The problem affects other states as well. Arizona, Utah, and parts of the Southeast also face explosions of juniper gnawing away at historical ecosystems and filling in productive rangeland. The impact of juniper encroachment on bird species has land managers especially concerned. In Oklahoma the birds of choice are the greater and lesser prairie chickens, which shun tall objects of all kinds. In Utah it’s the sage grouse, which relies on extensive swaths of intact sage brush habitat — precisely the ecosystem most threatened by juniper encroachment in Utah.
Hatchery working to restore prehistoric-looking species. KXII. The federal government is working to keep a prehistoric-looking animal off the endangered species list right here in Texoma. Roughly 1200 alligator snapping turtles are a part of the head start program at the Tishomingo National Fish Hatchery. The program was started back in 2000, after the population drastically declined due to overharvesting and habitat change. The hatchery estimates they have released more than 1000 turtles nationwide since the program began. Females will lay about 30 eggs in the spring, though only 1 percent will survive into adulthood. Fillmore said they will begin to start measuring their success in a couple of years, when the first group of released turtles is expected to begin nesting.
FEDERAL REGISTER
Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains: This document from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration responds to the five remaining appeals submitted by the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council (DGAC), American Chemistry Council (ACC), Association of American Railroads (AAR), American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), and jointly the Umatilla, Yakama, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce tribes (Columbia River Treaty Tribes) and the Quinault Indian Nation (Northwest Treaty Tribes). On May 8, 2015, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published a final rule entitled ‘‘Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains,’’ which adopted requirements designed to reduce the consequences and, in some instances, reduce the probability of accidents involving trains transporting large quantities of Class 3 flammable liquids. The Hazardous Materials Regulations provide a person the opportunity to appeal a PHMSA action, including a final rule. PHMSA received six appeals regarding the final rule, one of which was withdrawn.
Rights-of-Way on Indian Land. This final rule comprehensively updates and streamlines the process for obtaining Bureau of Indian Affairs grants of rights-of-way on Indian land, while supporting tribal self-determination and self-governance. This final rule further implements the policy decisions and approaches established in the leasing regulations, which BIA finalized in December 2012, by applying them to the rights-of-way context where applicable. The rule also applies to BIA land. DATES: This rule is effective on December 21, 2015.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
WSJ: Should Oil Firms Be Held Liable in Earthquake Lawsuits? (no sub necessary)
Tulsa World: Oil industry study indicates few Oklahoma wells are linked to earthquakes; USGS geophysicist thinks percentage is larger
Bakken.com: Company puts used fracking fluid to other uses
The Hill: API, ANGA to combine
The Oklahoman Editorial Board: Environmental regulations' ripple effects can carry a high price
NewsOK: Judge: Battle to prove need to block US rules on sage grouse
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