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The Obama administration on Friday tightened the rules for chemical disclosures asking corporations, engaged in drilling for oil and natural gas on federal government lands, to disclose their chemical compounds that are applied in the controversial drilling strategy, known as hydraulic fracturing operations.
A rule to come into effect in June this year also updates requirements for the effective construction as well as disposal of water and other fluids that are employed in the controversial drilling technique or fracking that has triggered an ongoing boom in the production of organic gas nationwide.
In a statement issued on Friday, Utah Governor Gary Herbert, “This is a case of Washington, D.C., searching for to solve a difficulty that does not exist. At a time when the oil and organic gas sector is facing extraordinary price uncertainties, these new, duplicative federal mandates make it a lot more difficult for independent producers to invest, extra difficult to make and much more tricky to maintain our American energy renaissance moving forward.”
Political leaders and western energy developers had been fast to blast Interior for unnecessarily increasing the expenses of production by embracing an approach of “a single-size-fits-all” that links the hands of the states to respond to the local demands.
Herbert said that the Utah officials have effectively regulated the business in the joint cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Land Management.
The controversial rule has been below consideration for more than three years as it has drew enough criticism from the oil and gas business and similar environmental groups.
According to the market, there are fears that the federal regulation could contribute in duplicating the efforts by states, and hinder the path of the booming drilling industry. Some environmental groups are concerned that the lenient guidelines could allow use of unsafe drilling methods that could pollute groundwater.
