This is an updated diary that I posted yesterday which includes a link to an article posted in Huffington today regarding the GOP blockage of oil and gas environmental fracking regulations and more important that FRAC Act. This has been all too disappointing and for those who like to venture a thought about the future, think high prices for basic tap water. Just a thought, and read away.
The stripping down of the energy bill may be concerning on many levels, but for those of us in the Marcellus Shale regions, the continued exemption of the gas drilling companies from the Clean Water Act is downright frightening.
Although states have considerable environmental powers to oversee the drilling process, there are many problems that they face, not withstanding lack of sheer manpower to monitor the thousands of rigs scheduled to be drilled. Federal EPA regulators are powerless with the current law or lack of it. Senator Bob Casey and others are trying desperately to repeal the infamous "Halliburton Loophole" before explorations begin by introducing FRAC Act (The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (H.R. 2766),(S. 1215).
What is the Halliburton Loophole? The Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congressmen James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Joe Barton of Texas inserted language to "Amend the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996 to exempt hydraulic fracturing related to oil and gas production . . . and, thus, exclude this practice from . . .regulations related to the protection of underground sources of drinking water."
As reported by The New York Times in February 2010, "Two of the world's largest oil field services companies [Halliburton and BJ Services] have acknowledged to Congress that they used diesel in hydraulic fracturing after telling federal regulators they would stop injecting the fuel near underground water supplies."
Now, highlighted in David Sirota's article on Huffington Post today;
Eighteen Republican members of the Colorado State Legislature Monday sent a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding the federal agency refrain from regulating the natural gas drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," no matter what a two-year EPA study of the process reveals.
Josh Fox, director of "Gaslands", states:
Widespread frustration with state agencies Like COGCC and PA DEP. Frustration among citizens with their state agencies was very common in my travels, in Colorado, in Pennsylvania, in Texas, and in Arkansas. Citizens pointed out time and time again how they felt their state environmental agencies were not up to the job, or even worse, were in cahoots with the gas companies. In Dimock, Pennsylvania, we were told that Cabot Oil and Gas and DEP reps often walked in together with an air of camaraderie; in Texas, complaints about the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Railroad Commission were rampant. It is indeed part of the thesis of Gasland that state agencies are either overwhelmed or not to be trusted when it comes to gas drilling. Mike and Marsha make that point quite clearly. Among folks living in gaslands, state agencies are not living up to their responsibilities to protect citizens and are widely suspected of corruption....PA DEP secretary John Hanger said there was no
contamination of Dimock’s water in the beginning of his interview, but he promptly reversed his position when I offered him some Dimock water to drink, stating that the families that had been contaminated had been given replacement water by the gas companies.
I support, along with many of the readers here, new clean energy resources, but we must be mindful that "natural gas" is not a clean free ride as of yet. Due diligence and holding this industry accountable in regards to "clean water" is not only critical, it must be mandatory.