Posted May 19, 2014
The U.S. Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) has issued an advance notice of proposed rule-making, considering regulations that would require companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” operations, according to an article by The Hill available here.
The EPA’s recent advance notice of proposed rule-making, available here, was published in response to a petition filed by Earthjustice and over 100 other environmental organizations asking for testing and reporting rules. The groups raised “concerns over various chemicals used during the fracking process, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground in order to fracture rock and unlock trapped oil and gas.”
The agency noted that it is only asking for feedback from those involved and “is not committing to a specific rulemaking outcome” in a notice filed with the Office of Management and Budget available here.
“EPA is anticipating that States, industry, public interest groups, and members of the public will be participants the process,” said the agency. “The stakeholder process will bring stakeholders together to discuss the information needs and help EPA to ensure any reporting burdens and costs are minimized, ensuring information already available is considered in order to avoid duplication of efforts.”
Eighteen states already require companies to disclose the identity of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, according to an article by Bloomberg BNA available here.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) says that new rulemaking for fracking is not necessary. “A new EPA rulemaking on this subject is unnecessary and duplicative. Robust chemical information is already available to EPA, as well as state regulators that are the primary regulators for oil and gas operations,” said API spokesman Zachary Cikanek. API supports the use of FracFocus to provide the public with information on fracturing.
Deborah Goldberg, a managing attorney for Earthjustice, said that regulations are needed to provide consistency in the collection of information and equal access to the information.
For more information on hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure requirements and legal issues, recent reports from the Congressional Research Service are available on the National Agricultural Law Center’s website hereand here.
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