PennEnergy Resources Agrees to Settlement to Reduce Climate- and Health-Harming Emissions in Pennsylvania

Today, the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) announced a proposed settlement with PennEnergy Resources LLC (PennEnergy) resolving alleged Clean Air Act and Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act violations involving the company’s oil and gas production operations in Pennsylvania.

If accepted by the court, the consent decree specifies that PennEnergy will undertake various projects to assess, modify and improve monitoring and maintenance of vapor control systems. These projects will result in a reduction of over 8,200 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year released as methane, similar to the number of reductions achieved by taking 1,740 cars off the road for one year. The settlement will also eliminate more than 150 tons of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions annually.

PennEnergy also agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty. This amount will be shared equally by the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a co-plaintiff in this case. PennEnergy will undertake compliance measures to achieve major reductions in harmful emissions at 17 of its oil and gas production facilities and partial measures at an additional 32 facilities, all located in Butler County and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.

“Oil and gas producers must comply with the Clean Air Act, which is intended to control air emissions and improve air quality and our environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “By adhering to the requirements of today’s settlement, PennEnergy will significantly reduce air emissions from its operations.”

“Today’s settlement continues EPA’s efforts to hold oil and gas companies accountable for illegal emissions that hamper air quality and accelerate climate change,” said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Penn Energy will undertake projects to improve air quality and reduce emissions of methane at nearly 50 facilities, providing environmental and public health benefits for Pennsylvanians and demonstrating that reducing illegal pollution from oil and gas facilities is good for communities and the planet.”

“When PennEnergy failed to implement an appropriate vapor control system on storage tanks at its facilities in western Pennsylvania, the company not only violated federal law, it allowed a substantial volume of volatile organic compounds to escape into the atmosphere,” said U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Today’s settlement reflects this office’s commitment to holding corporate citizens accountable for their wrongdoing and protecting our residents and the air they breathe.”

“This settlement marks a significant step toward reducing emissions and ensuring cleaner air for all residents of the Commonwealth,” said Acting Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Every Pennsylvanian is entitled to breathe clean air, and the Shapiro Administration is dedicated to ensuring that polluters are held responsible for any harm to that right.”

This settlement resolves PennEnergy’s failure to comply with federal and state requirements to capture and control air emissions from five of its oil and gas production facilities in Butler County, in western Pennsylvania. EPA identified the alleged violations through field investigations conducted in 2018. As a result of these violations, PennEnergy released methane and VOCs directly into the air instead of capturing and controlling the gas using specially designed equipment. Methane, a climate super pollutant, is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, and VOCs contribute to ground-level ozone, which adversely affects human health.

The agreement requires PennEnergy to take the necessary steps to ensure that its systems to control pollutants from atmospheric storage tanks are adequately designed and properly operated and maintained at an estimated cost of $2.4 million. These actions will significantly reduce harmful emissions from the company’s oil and gas operations.

In addition, PennEnergy must undertake a project to mitigate the environmental and public health harm attributable to their violations. Specifically, by Jan. 1, 2025, PennEnergy will be required to replace no fewer than 217 pollutant-emitting pneumatic devices with non-emitting devices in Butler and Lawrence counties, in western Pennsylvania. These measures are estimated to cost $1.2 million.

PennEnergy is a privately-owned oil and gas company headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Its business is focused on the acquisition and development of unconventional shale resources in the Appalachian Basin, and its natural gas extraction and production operations consist of approximately 370 wells at 107 oil and gas facilities located in western Pennsylvania.

The settlement is part of EPA’s National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative, Mitigating Climate Change. This initiative focuses, in part, on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas and landfill sources.

More information on the settlement agreement is available on EPA’s PennEnergy Resources LLC Settlement web page.

The proposed consent decree was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and is subject to a 30-day comment period. The complaint and the proposed consent decree are available at www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.

EPA and PADEP investigated the case.

Attorneys with the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Enforcement Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania are handling the case.