Protecting Our Public Lands From the Dangers of Fracking

Continuing to side with the fracking industry, House Republicans took advantage of an injunction on fracking regulations by a misguided Wyoming judge yesterday, and raked Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Neil Kornze over the coals. The rules, which regulate fracking on public lands, should have gone into effect on June 24th.

The debate from yesterday's hearing offered up the same industry reasons as to why the federal government does not need to, and even does not have the right to regulate oil and gas activities on land that they own. It has been over 30 years since the BLM has made any updates to fracking regulations, even though the industry’s practices have changed drastically.

Republicans on the committee continued their attacks on the new rules, citing the lack of need for federal oversight since the states are doing a proficient job.

Congressman Gohmert raged on accusing Director of the BLM Neil Kornze of not caring about poor people who need to have affordable energy to live. He also misrepresented the recent EPA study on fracking and its effect on drinking water, and kept wrongfully insisting that the EPA has concluded that fracking has never contaminated water supplies.

This continued attack on commonsense rules that are already weaker than needed, is an age-old aversion by industry for any regulation. It is the same industry that says it can regulate itself, whether it be offshore drilling or onshore operations. It is the same industry that continually side steps regulations designed to keep the public safe and the environment clean, that caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Kalamazoo oil spill, and more recently, the Plains All American pipeline rupture that oiled the Santa Barbara coastline.

In each of these accidents and many more, we were assured by industry that the operators know best and that any attempts by the government to prevent contamination of the public’s resources, is met with all out resistance. The BLM fracking rules set very minimal baseline standards for industry to follow while constructing a well and for the disposal of waste water. One area that the rules did not adequately cover was the disclosure of toxic chemicals to the public. The rules still allow companies to not disclose these hazardous materials if the industry claims that the chemical cocktail is a trade secret. The company’s profits and secrets outweigh the public’s health and right to know what is being emitted into the environment.

Even the regulations regarding what to do with contaminated wastewater are not where they should be. The BLM claims that there will be exceptions where open pits are used to store fracking wastewater instead of tanks, and that in those cases, they only need to be covered with a net to keep wildlife out of them. This completely ignores the air emissions from the water evaporating, as well as the risk of spillage from an unsealed pit. These loopholes in the BLM rule leave the public and environment at risk.

Regardless of how strong the BLM’s fracking rules are or how strong a state’s rules might be, they ignore the most important reason why we need to abandon this risky practice. The purpose of fracking is to get either oil or natural gas out of the ground. Both of which are dirty fossil fuels that are causing our climate to drastically change. We cannot continue to ignore the vast damage that climate disruption is having on our nation and world. It is time to finally utilize our federal lands to spur clean energy production that will actually make us energy independent, combat dangerous greenhouse gases, and most importantly, keep these dirty fuels in the ground.