The federal government has proposed a new set of national fracking rules that would weaken disclosure requirements. The proposal allows ‘trade secrets’ to remain unknown from the public, which has distressed environmental groups.
The US Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
on Thursday released its proposed update to hydraulic
fracturing regulations, which would be the first update in three
decades.
The proposal would require companies to have a water-management
plan for fluids that flow back to the surface. Fracking companies
would be required to prevent toxic chemicals from leaking into
groundwater.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the new rules, calling
them an initiative of a pro-energy Obama administration policy.
“As the president has made clear, this administration’s
priority is to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic
energy production,” Jewell said in a BLM press release. “In
line with that goal, we are proposing some commonsense updates that
increase safety while also providing flexibility and facilitating
coordination with states and tribes.”
The 171-page document requires companies to verify that wells
are drilled properly so that groundwater does not become
contaminated, submit plans for managing drilling wastewater, and
disclose injected chemicals.
But environmental groups quickly accused federal officials of
creating weak rules that contain dangerous loopholes that may be a
risk to water supplies across America.
“The rules protect industry, not people,” Natural
Resources Defense Council president Frances Beinecke told the
Denver Post. “This draft is a blueprint for business-as-usual
industrialization of our landscapes.”
The proposed regulations allow fracking companies to keep some
of their chemicals exempt from disclosure, calling them ‘trade
secrets’. Environmentalists have criticized the BLM for this,
arguing that fracking companies could use dangerous chemicals near
local communities that could pose an unknown risk, without having
to report what they use. They also fail to require an evaluation of
the security of cement barriers in individual wells. Oil and gas
companies need only to have one of their wells tested for safety,
and the government then assumes that the other wells are
similar.
“After reviewing the draft rules, we believe the
administration is putting the American public’s health and
well-being at risk, while continuing to give polluters a free
ride,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club,
told EcoWatch. “The draft BLM rules ignore the recommendations
of the president’s own shale gas advisory committee, which called
for transparency, full public chemical disclosure, environmental
safeguards, and pollution monitoring.”
Environmentalists are particularly concerned about the potential
contamination of drinking water across the US, and have criticized
Secretary Jewell for letting them down.
The federal government last year proposed a set of rules that
called for full disclosure of fracking chemicals, but these rules
were heavily criticized by Republicans and the fracking industry.
By taking away the provision requiring full disclosure, the rules
have a better chance of going into effect, but they don’t address
the most serious concern held by environmentalists.
“Comparing today’s rule governing fracking on public lands
with the one proposed a year earlier, it is clear what happened:
the Bureau of Land Management caved to the wealthy and powerful oil
and gas industry and left the public to fend for itself,”
Jessica Ennis of Earthjustice told EcoWatch.
“Our public lands — and the people who live near them —
deserve the highest level of protection,” she added.
“Today’s rule could have set the gold standard. Instead the BLM
is settling for shoddy protections peddled by the oil and gas
industry.”
This article originally appeared on : RT