EPA may force disclosure of fracking chemicals after public backlash — RT USA
EPA may force disclosure of fracking chemicals after public backlash — RT USA:
The Environmental Protection Agency took its first step towards demanding companies disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production, which could be a launching pad for regulating the fracking industry as a whole.
The EPA released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR or prerule) on Friday to gather public comment on “what information could be reported and disclosed for hydraulic fracturing chemicals and mixtures and the approaches for obtaining this information, including non-regulatory approaches,” the agency said in a statement.
The prerule is in response to a citizen petition by Earthjustice,
a legal non-profit focusing on the environment, under the Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA). Earthjustice, along with 114 other
groups, petitioned the EPA in August 2011 to require
“toxicity testing of chemicals and mixtures used in oil and
gas exploration and production; reporting to EPA, among other
things, the identity of those chemicals and mixtures; and
submitting to EPA health and safety studies on the chemicals and
mixtures,” the EPA said in its
ANPR.
In November 2011, the EPA limited the scope from chemicals and
mixtures used in all processes of oil and gas exploration and
production to only those used in hydraulic fracturing, a process
better known as fracking. The agency is working with the Bureau
of Land Management on proposed fracking regulations.
The issuing of the prerule comes shortly after a major producer
of fracking chemicals, Baker Hughes, announced it would
voluntarily begin disclosing the chemicals used.
A
rig contracted by Apache Corp drills a horizontal well in a search for
oil and natural gas in the Wolfcamp shale located in the Permian Basin
in West Texas October 29, 2013. (Reuters/Terry Wade)
