Dems Reintroduce FRAC Act to Vest EPA with Power to Block Fracking
ANTI-DRILLING/FOSSIL FUEL | HYDRAULIC FRACTURING | INDUSTRYWIDE ISSUES | REGULATION July 26, 2023
Dems Reintroduce FRAC Act to Vest EPA with Power to Block Fracking
ANTI-DRILLING/FOSSIL FUEL | HYDRAULIC FRACTURING | INDUSTRYWIDE ISSUES | REGULATION
July 26, 2023
Liberal Democrats never give up on their poor ideas–even when they are rejected year after year. In 2021, the Dems who controlled the U.S. House of Representatives with an iron fist under der Führer Pelosi introduced five bills, including the FRAC Act, aimed at destroying the oil and gas industry in this country (see Democrats Intro 5 Bills, Including FRAC Act, to Ban Fracking Everywhere). They’re baaaack! The same five bills, including the FRAC Act, were reintroduced by Democrat Congresswoman Diana DeGette (Colorado) last week. The FRAC Act would give the federal EPA (and the swamp-dwelling bureaucrats who run it) the power to control fracking throughout the entire country, violating the U.S. Constitution.
The FRAC Act would permanently rip the U.S. Constitution apart by overriding states’ rights to regulate and control oil and gas drilling within their own borders, as they do now. Using the faux excuse of man-made global warming, the FRAC Act overrides the individual states and grants broad/sweeping power to the federal EPA to regulate fracking.
All five bills introduced, called the “Frack Pack,” aim to restrict and eliminate fracking and fossil energy nationwide. These people are unhinged.
Rigzone reports on the FRAC Act portion of the bills introduced:
Proposed legislation in the USA is seeking to authorize the Environment Protection Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing to protect water resources.
The FRAC Act is among five legal proposals introduced before the lower house last week to address environmental and health risks from fracking, which commonly involves injecting chemicals underneath the ground to free up oil or gas.
“The legislation – known as the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2023, or FRAC Act – would close a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act that prevents EPA from regulating the notorious drilling process that involves injecting huge volumes of toxic chemicals deep into the ground to recover oil and natural gas, potentially contaminating the nation’s water supply and putting the public’s health at risk”, author Diana DeGette said in a press statement.
The proposal would also require drillers to disclose chemicals they use in the fracturing process.
“The American people have a right to know precisely what chemicals these companies are pumping into our nation’s water supply and what, if any, harm they pose to people’s health”, the statement said.
DeGette, lawmaker for Colorado state’s First District, pointed to a study that said states with disclosure mandates had better water quality. The research, published in the journal SSRN on January 19, said with transparency there was a decline in the use of hazardous chemicals, and fewer spills and accidents related to wastewater handling”.
“Water quality improvements after the disclosure mandates are greater in areas where public pressure is higher”, noted the paper by researchers from the University of Bristol, University of Chicago and University of Navarra.
Democrat DeGette recalled, “Named after the company that invented the fracking process, the so-called ‘Halliburton loophole’ – that exempted the chemicals used in the fracking process from EPA regulation – was included in the Safe Drinking Water Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2005, at the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who had previously served as CEO of Halliburton before taking office.”.
The planned law targets a process that is credited for the oil and gas boom in the USA, now the world’s biggest petroleum and natural gas producer.
A similar Democrat bill filed 2017 has been pending in the Senate.
Four other related pieces of legislation have been introduced last week to minimize environmental risks. One seeks to also allow the EPA to regulate the emission of pollutants from oil and gas companies. Another wants companies held accountable for hazardous waste created by their activities. (1)
Congresswoman DeGette issued this press release last week to announce the FRAC Act and the four other bills introduced:
The top Democrat on the House Energy, Climate and Grid Security subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), introduced legislation today to give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate an oil drilling practice known as hydraulic fracking.
The legislation – known as the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2023, or FRAC Act – would close a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act that prevents EPA from regulating the notorious drilling process that involves injecting huge volumes of toxic chemicals deep into the ground to recover oil and natural gas, potentially contaminating the nation’s water supply and putting the public’s health at risk.
If approved, DeGette’s legislation would not only give EPA the authority to regulate the process going forward, it would also – for the first time – require U.S. fracking companies to publicly disclose the chemicals they are using at sites across the country.
“The American people have a right to know precisely what chemicals these companies are pumping into our nation’s water supply and what, if any, harm they pose to people’s health,” DeGette said. “For far too long, America’s oil and gas industry has been allowed to operate with impunity, with little regard for how their activities impact the air we breathe and the water we drink. Congress can, and must, do more to protect our communities from the threat they face from this practice.”
A study published recently by researchers at the University of Chicago found that states that require fracking companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the process had less pollution from the activity, higher water quality and fewer wells drilled as a result.
Named after the company that invented the fracking process, the so-called “Halliburton loophole” – that exempted the chemicals used in the fracking process from EPA regulation – was included in the Safe Drinking Water Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2005, at the behest of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who had previously served as CEO of Halliburton before taking office.
The FRAC Act is one of five bills that was introduced in the House Thursday to address environmental and public health concerns related to the fracking process. Collectively, the five bills have been dubbed the Frack Pack and, in addition to DeGette’s FRAC Act, include:
The CLEANER Act, which would close a loophole in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that allows oil and gas companies to avoid responsibility for the hazardous waste they create.
The FRESHER Act, which would create a study to better understand the effect of stormwater runoff from oil and gas operations.
The CLOSE Act, which would eliminate the aggregation exemption that allows oil and gas companies to emit a range of hazardous pollutants while producing, processing, storing, and transmitting fossil fuels without meaningful regulation by EPA.
The SHARED Act, which would require increased testing and reporting of water contamination near fracking sites. (2)
I would like to get this straight. These folks of little rational reasoning wish to destroy human civilization, quicker the better, and cause untold human misery and death to save the planet, avoiding a problem that may exist in 2100. This would be like exiting an airplane at 10,000 feet while it circles the airfield because you are late for the next flight. Trust me, you will miss the flight either way, only one way you will miss it sooner!! The outcome will be the same if O&G goes away before an actual replacement is IN PLACE.
The only energy source that will replace hydrocarbons is something that has the same magical characteristics: high energy density, low land footprint, convenient storage, transportability, the ability to make remarkable stuff out of it. Even assuming solar and wind could actually replace natural gas, or that batteries will one day provide storage, or hydrogen becomes the fuel of the future, or deep geothermal is applicable everywhere at half the cost, or by some miracle nuclear is decriminalized or that fusion actually works instead of always being 20 years away, NONE OF THOSE THINGS HAVE MADE A DENT IN HYDROCARBON USE AT THIS DATE! In 1972 hydrocarbons provided 85% of the worlds energy and today they provide 82% of worlds energy. That’s 3% in 50 years! In that time, oil production has doubled. Nuclear is the difference in that 3% change.
The one thing that has reduced CO2 emissions by nearly 30% in the US is natural gas conversions of coal plants resulting from the shale revolution. Sure makes sense to stop that! Replacing all coal plants in the US and world wide would do more to reduce CO2 dramatically and is something that could be done quickly at relatively minimal cost. Then we can create time for that miracle energy source to emerge, be designed and built, at scale.
As it happens, no one was attacking natural gas as the worst GHG ever until natural gas reduced CO2 emissions. Natural gas did what renewables couldn’t, create actual reductions in CO2. The great coal replacement took the limelight off renewables since even with all the renewables built, they had not reduced CO2 emissions across the world because demand for hydrocarbons is still increasing and I suspect will for the foreseeable future because 5/8th of the world needs more energy to improve their standard of living above subsistence.
I am actually not against “transitioning” from Oil and Gas even though, for full disclosure, I work in the business. I’m an exploration geologist. It is just that it is beyond stupidity to make oil and gas effectively illegal before it can be replaced. Only sorrow, pain and death will follow if rather than a transition we have an immediate mandated cessation of oil and gas production, ignoring energy demand dynamics.