CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming’s top regulator of oil and gas development has resigned after he remarked at a conference that greed and desire for compensation motivate people who assert that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated their groundwater.
Gov. Matt Mead on Thursday announced the resignation of Tom Doll, supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Doll’s comments June 5 at a meeting of state oil and gas regulators in Vancouver, British Columbia, had to do with residents near Pavillion in central Wyoming.
“I really believe greed is driving a lot of this” and people around Pavillion are “just looking to be compensated,” the energy news publication EnergyWire quoted Doll as saying.
Mead’s administration distanced itself from the comments as inconsistent with the governor’s views. Doll later apologized, saying the remarks were “inappropriate and inconsiderate.”
The remarks drew condemnation from people in the Pavillion area.
The dustup happened while Mead and other state officials were visiting China. The governor returned this week and met with Doll in person on Wednesday, according to Mead spokesman Renny MacKay.
“They both agreed it was for the best,” MacKay said.
MacKay declined to elaborate on whether Doll volunteered or was asked to quit. He said it wasn’t clear if Doll’s departure was effective immediately.
Doll didn’t immediately return a phone message Thursday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft report in December that says fracking may have contaminated groundwater in the Pavillion area. Fracking boosts the productivity of oil and gas wells by cracking open deposits with water and chemicals mixed with sand, which are pumped into the wells at high pressure.
In early November, Doll expressed concern in an email to other state officials that the EPA’s findings in Pavillion would harm state revenues and the oil and gas industry’s ability to exploit certain oil and gas deposits.
Doll has overseen the commission since 2009. He was a district manager for Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Production Co. before that.
Mead said in a written statement that he appreciated Doll’s work and depth of knowledge, and that a search for a new oil and gas supervisor would begin immediately.
