BLM’s New Draft Fracking Rules Give Industry a Free Pass, But Were They Written By ExxonMobil?
BLM’s New Draft Fracking Rules Give Industry a Free Pass, But Were They Written By ExxonMobil?: pDeSmogBlog notes that the Bureau of Land Management’s recently-released rules governing fracking on federal lands ”will adopt the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill written by ExxonMobil for fracking chemical fluid disclosure on U.S. public.” It uses a voluntary online chemical disclosure database that has “truck-sized” loopholes, most notably that it’s voluntary — editors. By Frances Beinecke via [...]/p
Occurring almost simultaneously with the close of the first 45-day public comment period for the Keystone XL Pipeline Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) in April 2013 that was recently posted (see blog post dated March 20, 2013), it appears that another document had been "quietly" released for public scrutiny, as well: The 2nd Draft of Proposed Rule for the regulation of hydraulic fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands by the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior (referred to here as the BLM 2nd Draft). It is that particular document that is being discussed by the aforementioned article authored by Frances BEINECKE President of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Another review article that I found reporting on the same document, authored by Stephen MUFSON of the Washington Post, appeared five days earlier on May 16, 2013. A link to that article may be found here:
Obama Administration Issues Draft Fracking Regulations
(Stephen MUFSON, 2013)
As the initial deadline of the 60-day period of public comment for the BLM 2nd Draft draws to a close toward mid-June 2013, I felt it prudent to make it available for your perusal here. Its link is as follows:
Oil and Gas; Well Stimulation, Including Hydraulic Fracturing, on Federal and Indian Lands
(43 CFR 3160; Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management)
http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=293916
Another interesting document, used to evidence the possible ineffectiveness of the BLM 2nd Draft as it currently stands, originates from a Harvard Law School's Environmental Law Program Policy Initiative study of FracFocus. In it, various deficiencies within this voluntary chemical disclosure registry were revealed and discussed. The links to both the FracFocus chemical registry website, and the Harvard study may be found below:
FracFocus Chemical Disclosure Registry
Legal Fractures in Chemical Disclosure Laws - Why the Voluntary Chemical Disclosure Registry FracFocus Fails as a Regulatory Compliance Tool (KONSCHNIK et al., 2013)
Admittedly, there is much information in today's blog post to read and digest in such a short period of time. However...
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
- Isaac Asimov
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
- Isaac Asimov
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