Energy Environmental Blog

Hydraulic Fracturing Legislation

Written by Greg Russell | May 30, 2010 1:57:30 PM

Hydraulic fracturing has seen several legislative initiatives lately.  For example, the Kerry-Lieberman climate legislation introduced earlier this month (at just under 1,000 pages) contains the following 36-word provision:  "A hydraulic fracturing service company shall disclose all chemical constituents used in a hydraulic fracturing operation to the public on the Internet in order to provide adequate information for the public and State and local authorities."  See here (NYT article on legislation generally); here (Senator Kerry's website); here (text of bill itself).

Also, Representative DeGette (D-Colo.) planned last week to introduce an amendment to the Assistance, Quality and Affordability Act in the House Energy and Commerce Committee designed to accomplish the same thing, i.e., require public disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.  See here (from the Dallas Morning News).  The NYT has reported that Rep. DeGette withdrew that amendment after considering the possibility of a compromise with industry.

Don't think it won't come up again ...