DEPA PRESS RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 23, 2020
The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) sent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leadership a letter today calling on the Agency to scale back and reconsider entirely the de facto Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) mandate under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The RFS RNG mandate interferes with the free market and unnaturally incentivizes the replacement of geologic natural gas with renewable gas in natural gas vehicles. Created from methane captured at landfills, RNG qualifies as a cellulosic biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). This means, while it is much cheaper to produce than natural gas, RNG used in natural gas vehicles receives a massive subsidy – which can be as high as $1.80 an ethanol equivalent gallon in 2020 – to directly replace geologic natural gas in the transportation sector.
DEPA appreciates the Administration’s efforts to make America energy self-sufficient and the world’s number one producer of crude oil and natural gas. We believe the RNG mandate should be reduced in the 2021 RFS and seek advanced rulemaking to rescind RNG’s approval for the cellulosic biofuel category of the RFS.
In 2014 EPA allowed landfill gas to qualify as a cellulosic biofuel under RFS. RNG is now used to meet nearly the entirety of the cellulosic biofuel mandate and EPA has increased this RNG mandate by an average of almost 40% annually for each of the last five years. Cellulosic RFS credits were as high as $1.67 per gallon earlier this year. DEPA believes this subsidy is unnecessary and unfair in the natural gas marketplace.
These measures are necessary to ensure a competitive American natural gas vehicle market that maximizes consumer choice, while minimizing fuel costs.
DEPA PRESS RELEASE – AUGUST 14, 2020
The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s action to modify air emissions regulations affecting oil and natural gas production operations. These changes retain the framework of air emissions regulations of oil and natural gas production, but they modify flawed provisions, in the 2016 New Source Performance Standards fugitive emissions program that was driven by political pressures to rush those regulations to completion.
The Obama Administration had promulgated regulation of methane from the transmission and storage segment of the oil and gas sector without taking the appropriate steps to justify those actions. EPA is issuing policy amendments in response to President Trump’s Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. The order directs agencies to review existing regulations that potentially “burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources,” including oil and natural gas, and to rescind or suspend regulatory requirements if appropriate.
The Trump Administration’s amendments not only follow the text of the Clean Air Act, but also reduce regulatory burden to the industry and streamline other requirements. Protection of human health and the environment will continue through controls for smog-forming volatile organic compounds for the production and processing segments of the industry, reducing methane at the same time.
DEPA believes abundant, reliable, affordable, domestic energy is key to revitalizing the US economy and reshoring US businesses after the Covid crises. Regulatory relief like this will ensure that US independent producers are able to meet those energy requirements.
DEPA PRESS RELEASE – JULY 6, 2020
The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) congratulates the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the issuance of a final long-term order authorizing the export of domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the proposed Jordan Cove LNG Terminal (Jordan Cove) in Coos Bay, Oregon.
The US has become the number one producer of crude oil and natural gas on the planet. Providing our friends and allies with American crude oil and natural gas as liquified natural gas (LNG) is a boost the US economy and provides stability to the world markets and ensures reliability of supply.
US domestic natural gas is far more abundant and affordable today than anyone imagined ten years ago. US domestic producers are anxious to provide not just America’s needs with cheap abundant natural gas but also be part of an ever-growing international market. With the addition of the Jordan Cove LNG facility, US producers will have another avenue to provide LNG to markets that otherwise may never benefit from the American energy renaissance.
Additionally, if the Jordan Cove LNG Terminal, including the Pacific Connector Pipeline, create the expected 6,000 + jobs during construction and generate up to $100 million in state and local tax revenue annually DEPA believes this looks like a win/win for everyone.
DEPA PRESS RELEASE – JUNE 25, 2020
S&P Global Platts announced today the creation of Platts American GulfCoast Select (AGS), a new benchmark which will serve as a more accurate and reliable source for pricing crude oil in America. The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) is a proud member of the AGS Best Practices Task Force Association, in which DEPA chairman Harold Hamm is also serving as chairman.
“This is a pivotal step for the oil and gas industry as a new, waterborne benchmark is necessary to competitively market America’s growing crude oil supply,” said chairman Harold Hamm. “We appreciate the work Platts and others have put forth to move American oil and gas to a more competitive market. Since the oil export ban was lifted in 2015, American producers began migrating to global markets rather than being landlocked in the U.S.
America remains the number one producer of oil and natural gas on the planet, and this new benchmark better aligns with where American energy is headed in the future. I commend Platts as well as the other members of this task force for recognizing the need and moving expeditiously to better unleash American energy to the world.”
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