Non-Profit Org Warns Oil and Gas Fumes Cause Cancer: Virginia Industry Org Says, Nay

A non-profit organization has warned residents of West Virginia that exposure to oil and gas fumes can increase their risk of developing cancer, but an organization representing these industries disagrees.

Over half of West Virginia's counties are shown on a map in the Clean Air Task Force report to be above the level of concern for cancer risks set by the EPA.

The report comes as fresh data from the US Energy Information Administration was made public on Wednesday, showing that gas production in the US surpassed previous records in 2021.

The data in the Clean Air Task Force Report is contested by the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia.

Although the report was released in September, it is noted that this analysis is of data that the EPA collected in 2017.

Experts from CATF explained that they updated the data to a more recent date using EPA projections and trends on the gas and oil industry.

Source of Cleanest Natural Gas

According to the Energy Information Administration, 1/3 of all natural gas generated in the United States is produced in the Appalachian Basin, which includes Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Charlie Burd, executive director of the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, said that West Virginia is perched atop the Marcellus and Utica shale, which may contain the nation's richest natural gas deposits.

Burd cites a different CATF report that appears to demonstrate that while West Virginia's natural gas production increased between 2018 and 2020, greenhouse gas emissions decreased.

He claimed that the gas and oil industries in Appalachia reduced emissions by about 70% as an outcome of the voluntary agreements that the industry has with the Department of Energy and EPA.

Burd further said that the company is extremely proud of West Virginia's production of the cleanest natural gas in the entire world.

They believed that if given the chance to produce more, they will do more than any other location to reduce emissions.

EPA Review

The cited report is being examined by the EPA.

The EPA proposed a rule in November 2021 that would substantially lower methane and other harmful air pollution from both existing and new sources in the natural gas and oil industry.

This includes air toxins such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene.

The agency held a three-day public hearing after receiving close to half a million written comments and responses on the proposal.

The EPA has created a supplemental proposal that may revisit, improve, or expand on the specifics of the one we released in November after reviewing those comments.

In the upcoming weeks, the EPA intends to release the supplemental proposal open for public review and comment.

Read also: Environmental Impacts of Fracking Boom in the US 

Waiting for Answers

The Methane Pollution Prevention Team at CATF has knowledge of and support for the rule proposed in 2021, according to Lesley Feldman, manager of research and analysis, but it contained a loophole for leak inspections.

Feldman said that they anticipate that the EPA will close this gap by requiring these inspections at all facilities.

They believed that the EPA is generally moving in the right direction and that they currently have a fantastic opportunity to finalize those rules, which will significantly decrease methane emissions while also safeguarding communities from these dangerous air pollutants.

Burd, on the other hand, asserted that he thought the new EPA regulation would be superfluous because gas and oil companies already place a high priority on environmental protection and safety.

He further said that companies that have previously made these voluntary efforts to reduce emissions may find that this new round of potential penalties for failing to reduce emissions even more than they already do sort of fly in their faces, Eyewitness News reported.

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