Regulation

Earlier this week Harvard Law School released a so-called study saying the independent FracFocus hydraulic fracturing chemical registry falls short and the federal government should step in to enforce reporting by drillers (see Harvard Law School Says FracFocus “Fails” as Compliance Tool).

The two organizations behind FracFocus, the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission have responded to the charges leveled by Harvard. FracFocus points out Harvard never even talked to them or asked to see the inner workings of the organization and how it operates—so how in the world can Harvard come to the conclusions they did? MDN knows: Lefty bias—how else? Who needs facts when your own anti-drilling opinions will do just fine? Here’s the detailed response from FracFocus utterly refutes and humiliates the “study” from Harvard:

Read More “FracFocus Responds to Flawed Harvard Study + MDN has a Question”

Newly approved Sec. of Interior, Sally Jewell, said on Monday that new rules for fracking on federal lands from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be out “fairly soon.” She also said “one size doesn’t fit all,” apparently trying to assuage concerns by the drilling industry that the federal government is attempting a takeover of regulating fracking. She even claimed she was a fracker once upon a time…

Read More “New Interior Secretary Jewell Says BLM Fracking Rules Coming Soon”

The online national hydraulic fracturing chemical registry called FracFocus was launched in April of 2011. Created and managed by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, two organizations whose missions both revolve around conservation and environmental protection, FracFocus was created to provide the public access to reported chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing within their area. By all accounts it’s been a great success with most oil and gas drilling companies participating and supplying data about their drilling operations to the organization.

However, yesterday FracFocus came under heavy criticism from the Harvard Law School who published a 16-page study (embedded below) that says FracFocus doesn’t go far enough—they say voluntary reporting by drillers is “spotty” and the trade secret provision that allows drillers to hold back some information is “overly broad.” The title of this “study” claims that, “FracFocus fails as a regulatory compliance tool.” HLS’ proposed fix? Bring in the feds…

Read More “Harvard Law School Says FracFocus "Fails" as Compliance Tool”

A couple of recent law school grads from SUNY Buffalo now work as environmental, health, and safety regulatory analysts researching New York’s proposed regulations to allow fracking. They launched a blog site in February called New York State Fracking Unplugged. It’s a very informative blog site (be sure to bookmark and read it). On Wednesday, one of the lawyer/authors, Robert Grimaldi, penned a post covering a story that’s received very little mention in the mainstream press: this week the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing to examine whether or not individual states can handle their own oil and gas regulatory oversight without the need for the feds to butt in (which is contra to the U.S. Constitution).

Grimaldi’s report:

Read More “U.S. House Hearing: States (Not Feds) Should Regulate Oil & Gas”