Federal oversight of fracking in dispute
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U.S. Sen. Bob Casey drew jeers from drillers and cheers from environmentalists last month when he launched his latest push to bring hydraulic fracturing under federal oversight.
Depending on one's perspective, allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the controversial technique would either disrupt the natural gas industry and erect a new regulatory hurdle or provide baseline standards and reassure people who fear that the process can ruin underground supplies of drinking water.
"The bill is designed to make sure that we don't have problems. I think it's a very important precaution," Mr. Casey, D-Pa., said during a recent interview.
Developed more than 60 years ago by oil and gas company Halliburton and used today in all Marcellus Shale wells, hydraulic fracturing is a technique that injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground under high pressure to crack rock and allow trapped natural gas to flow.
Some of the mixture remains underground. And some of the chemicals, although added in relatively small quantities, are harmful.
That toxicity is what scares environmentalists, who wonder exactly what substances drillers are shooting into the earth, whether the fluid can foul drinking water, and if the process is being adequately regulated.
"So far, states have not stepped up to the plate to fill those shoes," said Jessica Goad, policy fellow at The Wilderness Society.
Mr. Casey's FRAC Act -- Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals -- has two components.
One would put hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," under the auspices of the EPA and remove a 2005 congressional exemption -- dubbed the "Halliburton loophole" -- that prevents the agency from regulating it.
The other would force drillers to reveal publicly all chemicals used in fracking, except for proprietary formulas.
While Pennsylvania does require disclosure of chemicals, it does not have any preapproval process for fracking. Drillers must comply with various regulations governing such activities as casing wells and disposing of wastewater, and then file a "well completion" report.
First Published April 3, 2011 12:00 am
