December 11, 2022

As previously highlighted, the Uintah Basin struggles with a rare wintertime ozone challenge. Oil and gas emissions, specifically VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and NOx (nitrous oxides), contribute to ozone under certain conditions, specifically when there is enough snow cover and an inversion settles over the Basin. In 2021, UPA kicked off our “Latch the Hatch” effort. Latch the Hatch is focused on a number of actions that producers and crude haulers or trucking companies can take to reduce emissions that form ozone. One simple but critical item is keeping thief hatches closed, hence the name “latch the hatch,” but the program extends to a lot of other efforts to reduce emissions and enhance leak detection and repair.

In political circles, fall is often referred to as “harvest season.” This makes sense, especially in election years, because all of the work you’ve put in – the hours and days and weeks of preparation, of backbreaking work, of endless tasks that seem magically not to disappear when complete, but somehow multiply – now finds its ultimate result. In election terms, that result is binary. You either win or lose. There is no third option.

The Utah Petroleum Association (UPA) is a Utah-based, statewide petroleum trade association representing companies involved in all aspects of Utah’s oil and gas industry. We exist to serve our member companies and advance the responsible development of Utah’s natural resources and manufacture of fuels that drive Utah’s economy.