Crafted by the Idaho Petroleum Council to accommodate new natural gas drilling and related operations in Payette and Washington Counties, House Bill 464 diminishes local control of industry ventures like fracking by requiring that “no ordinance, resolution, requirement, or standard of a city, county, or political subdivision, except a state agency with authority, shall actually or operationally prohibit the extraction of oil and gas…” For more information, see Idaho Fracking articles on the WIRT website.

Read Bill Gives State Authority over Oil and Gas by The Associated Press.

Leaders in Washington County now have a new set of rules that require energy companies to get local approval before drilling for natural gas or building refineries. The Idaho Statesman reports that the rules adopted by county commissioners Monday also impose bonding requirements on oil and gas projects. Officials acknowledge the new rules likely conflict with legislation making its way through the Idaho Legislature. Last week, a House committee approved a bill that gives the state much of the regulatory authority over the industry; that measure could come up shortly for a debate and vote in the full House. County officials have been working on new rules for more than a year in response to growing industry activity in the region. In 2010, a company reported promising discoveries of gas reserves in Payette County — and since then drilling has expanded into Washington County.

Read Washington County Passes Its Own Drilling Regulations by Rocky Barker in the Idaho Statesman.

(By Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise, The Spokesman-Review, from an Associated Press article)

Idahoans unhappy with a bill allocating control over natural gas drilling and exploration compared its approach to unpopular federal mandates like health insurance and the Endangered Species Act.

Despite concerns over the loss of local control, the House Resources and Conservation Committee approved the bill 16-0 Thursday.

Still, concerns raised by Washington and Payette county residents over the lack of opportunities for the public to shape and steer drilling, exploration and production of natural gas prompted an industry attorney to commit to make changes to the legislation.

The hearing came as lawmakers look at how to regulate natural gas, which was discovered in seven of 11 wells drilled in Payette County in 2010.

Read more: Idaho House Panel OKs Giving State Oversight of Gas Industry

(By Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman)

Following a full afternoon of testimony, the House Resources and Conservation Committee passed a package of gas exploration legislation Thursday afternoon, including a dilution of local controls. The vote was unanimous.

Suzanne Budge, executive director of the Idaho Petroleum Council, referred lawmakers to today’s Idaho Statesman, which featured a re-print of a Wall Street Journal report, offering a positive spin to the oil and gas industry.

“This is a very exciting development,” said Budge, referring to Idaho’s burgeoning gas exploration industry, which has its eyes on Payette and Washington county farmlands.

But Budge made no mention of Boise Weekly’s current February 8, 2011, report, Idaho’s Gasland Rules Debated, on February 8, 2011, which includes concerns from Washington County residents about one of the Petroleum Council’s measures that would give primacy on well permits to the state, stripping authority from county or local governments.

Read more: House Committee Passes Bill Stripping Local Authority on Gas Drilling

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

As some of you are aware, the industry has created legislation to limit the ability of local governments to regulate oil and gas (HO464).  While there are aspects of this that make sense (i.e. the county has neither the expertise or resources to regulate well casing, mechanical integrity testing, etc.), this legislation goes much further.

Local governments would not have the ability to require the gas industry to follow the traditional special use permitting process (a process that has been in place for over 35 years that involves an applicant going before a planning and zoning commission and participating in a public hearing).  Instead, the gas industry would now be subject to an administrative permitting process for all aspects of oil and gas prior to ‘processing.’  So, in essence, this would include siting of well pads and pits, setbacks, etc.  The Idaho Association of Counties claims that this would essentially involve the planning and zoning manager going through a predetermined checklist of conditions (conditions set in the ordinance).  Currently, when an application is brought forward in this process, the planning and zoning commission has the authority to create site-specific conditions.  Under this potential new legislation, all conditions would be pre-determined.  So, the county would have to envision every possible site for a well pad or pit or road use, etc. and write all of these scenarios with their likely conditions into an ordinance.   The county’s ordinance must contain “reasonable” provisions that are not “repugnant to law.”  According to the IAC, it would be up to the courts to define as reasonable. Continue reading →