Eideard

Shale gas deposits

The U.S. government will require natural gas drillers to disclose which chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing on public lands, according to draft rules crafted by the Interior Department…

Companies would be required to disclose the “complete chemical makeup of all materials used” in fracking fluids under the Interior Department’s draft rules, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters…

The Bureau of Land Management estimates that companies use the fracking technique on about 90 percent of wells drilled on federal lands.

The proposed rules would also require drillers to ensure the stability of underground casing in wells and that waste water from fracking does not leak into the environment.

The Interior Department has said it is moving ahead with the rules but has not offered a specific timeline for when they will be released. Once the proposal is officially issued, the department will get feedback before finalizing the regulations…

Fracking has helped companies tap vast reserves of natural gas that could turn the United States into an exporter of the fuel. But environmental groups and some residents near fracking operations say the process pollutes the water and air…

The energy industry complained that the draft rules were overkill as companies were voluntarily revealing the fluids. U.S. law does not require disclosure of fluids used in fracking on federal lands…

One of the largest natural gas drillers, Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it has been voluntarily disclosing its information on chemicals for nearly a year on all its wells on public or private lands on a web site called www.fracfocus.com .

Some of the drillers – like Chesapeake – support voluntary disclosure. In general, I believe corporate commitment to transparency is about as realistic as the sun rising in the West or the leadership of the Republican Party suddenly accepting guidance from the National Institute of Science.

Not on your tintype, Nellie! I choose regulation and oversight.

Century City and downtown Los Angeles
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said…it would again delay issuing a final limit on smog pollution opposed by manufacturers and many Republican lawmakers until the Obama administration has finished reviewing it.

In December, the agency said it would issue the rule by the end of July…

“Following completion of this final step, EPA will finalize its reconsideration, but will not issue the final rule on July 29th, the date the agency had intended,” the EPA said in a release…It was the fourth time the agency delayed the smog standards, originally slated to be finalized last August…

The proposal was stronger than 2008 standards set by the Bush administration. Environmentalists blasted those for being less than what government scientists recommended.

Under the rule, factories and oil, natural gas and power generators would be forced to cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and other chemicals called volatile organic compounds. Smog forms when those chemicals react with sunlight.

The rule has been opposed by industry groups. The American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable complain that it would damage the economic recovery and that many areas would not be able to meet the new limits…

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said the ozone rules would save as much as $100 billion in health costs, and help prevent as much as 12,000 premature deaths from heart and lung complications…

Every additional day of delay means more Americans will suffer…that is, ordinary Americans. Not those who will return to their home districts after another do-nothing session of Congress. Those politicians who should be prompting the EPA to get off their rusty dusty butts and aid the lives of American people aren’t risking their health by doing anything more than passing quickly through pollution zones.

The same holds true in spades for that herd of dinosaurs who smoke their cigars in private clubs funded by the American Petroleum Institute, the greenback claque chauffeured forth-and-back to meetings of the US Chamber of Commerce. Perish the thought anything other than filtered, conditioned air reaches their pampered respiratory systems.