Fewer regulations would be on the menu for parts of Pennsylvania's oil and gas industry under a bill that passed the House Tuesday.

HB 2154, sponsored by Rep. Martin Causer (R-McKean), would follow up on 2012’s Act 13 by  reforming rules for conventional oil and gas wells, which are smaller and shallower compared to unconventional fracking wells.

Rep. Garth Everett (R-Lycoming) sat down with The PLS Reporter Tuesday afternoon to discuss House Bill 1391. 

If HB 1391 passes, then it would guarantee landowners 12.5 percent royalty on the natural gas extracted from their land. 

Rep. Everett stated that this bill,  "would affect thousands and thousands of landowners" in Pennsylvania’s gas- producing region. 

Despite assertions to the contrary by DEP Sec. John Quigley Wednesday, those from the oil and gas industry say they have both substantive and procedural concerns about the department’s ongoing efforts to revise Chapter 78 and Chapter78a regulations that directly affect oil and gas production.

“We have not gotten substantive comments,” Sec. Quigley said of complaints lodged against the formation of the new regulations. “This agency has done this the right way, we have split the regulations, we have taken into account the distinct needs of the conventional community, we are addressing the larger questions of unconventional of natural gas development.”

He added what the department is proposing in the new regulations is “balanced, incremental, reasonable, and absolutely necessary based upon data and the facts on the ground.”

While he said he understands that no regulated community likes additional regulations, which are likely as the revision process continues, “a plain reading of what we are proposing shows that it is incremental, balanced, and very, very reasonable.”

Those comments were met with a stark reaction from the oil and gas industry, who told The PLS Reporter that they have made complaints—both procedural and substantive—about the updated regulations throughout the revision process.

Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny), majority chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, aired numerous grievances with the Department of Environmental Protection’s process in creating and considering draft regulations that pertain to surface activities of oil and gas drillers during Wednesday’s House Appropriations Committee budget hearing with the department.

A revised draft of the regulations was presented by DEP Monday and are planned on being reviewed by the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board at a March 20^th hearing.

“You’ve talked many times about integrity and transparency, and I’m a great fan of both,” he told Acting DEP Sec. John Quigley. “What I’ve seen in this case doesn’t exhibit either.