Obama administration tightens fracking rules

Obama administration tightens fracking rules

money.cnn.com

New requirements will force the disclosure of chemicals used in the fracking process in oil and gas wells on federal and American Indian lands.

(visit the link for the full news article)

With fracking increasing dramatically in my home state of Colorado, this is a huge concern for me. Forcing these huge corporations to disclose what toxic chemicals are laeking into my water supply is something that should have been done long ago. There is increasing evidence that shows fracking may cause earthquakes in addition to groundwater contamination. when the new rules take effect it will be interesting to see the response from both the industry and the inhabitants of natural gas fracking sites.

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Vipassana


That's just another example of Obama wrapping a wet blanket around Free Market

Capitalism.

reply to post by Eurisko2012


How will forcing companies to disclose what chemicals they use put " a wet blanket around Free Market

Capitalism."?

Should they be allowed to continue polluting with impunity?



ETA:

Looking at the article in depth, one finds that this is hardly restricting at all:

They said the new rules only require chemical disclosure after the fracturing has been done.

A phrase regarding horses and barn doors comes to mind here.

And indeed, those in the industry (oil & gas) aren't concerned about the current proposal:

In reacting to the new rules Friday, the industry didn't seem too concerned with the proposal itself, but was leery of a bigger federal presence.

This tells me that the regulations lack teeth, sort of like safety oversight in the nuclear power industry...

Source



ETA

Another related thread here

Friggin' Frackin'.

It's the only reason IRIS reports earthquakes in Oklahome.

With the stellar record of energy companies for safety and regard to the environment, why shouldn't they be required to disclose what they're putting into the ground?

As a general question, in the 21st century why are we still running the world on a 19th century technology? Why is goo/gas pulled from the ground the way we're powering the world?

Never mind, I remembered the answer rich guys who control that market are in bed with the gov'ts.

The Sun can warm the planet, drive the seasons, shut down our power grids with CME, adn generally produce more energy in a decade than we could dream to ever use, but we'll not further the technology to harness a third of that energy because it'll cut into the sociopathic greed of those rich guys.

What a world.

Derek

This goes to show that society's priorities are totally misaligned. The health and safety of our ecosystem and general population, our two most valuable resources, are largely ignored at the expense of capitalist greed. I'm glad the Obama administration put forth these new guidelines.

As the previous poster said, we could be using clean technologies if we were only willing to invest them on the kind of scale that we invest into oil and gas.

Originally posted by Vipassana
I'm glad the Obama administration put forth these new guidelines.

Those guidelines have been seriously hampered:

But in a significant concession to the oil industry, companies will have to reveal the composition of fluids only after they have completed drilling — a sharp change from the government’s original proposal, which would have required disclosure of the chemicals 30 days before a well could be started.

New Proposal on Fracking Gives Ground to Industry

All bark and no bite make for a mighty weak guard dog...