Hydraulic fracturing, stormwater bills debut in US Senate
Washington (Platts)--21Apr2005
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (Republican-Oklahoma) introduced this week a pair of bills designed to exempt oil and gas producers from certain Clean Water Act requirements with an eye toward their inclusion in the Senate's version of comprehensive energy legislation, a committee spokesman said Thursday. One measure would clarify that the extraction method of hydraulic fracturing is exempt from the act, while the other would exempt oil and gas facilities that disturb one to five acres of land from compliance with the stormwater-permitting program authorized under the law. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency formally determined that hydraulic fracturing poses no threat to drinking water, but the committee spokesman said the measure is necessary in order to stave off potential litigation against the industry in the future. Inhofe said in a statement the stormwater measure "frees the [construction] sites from having to undertake a burdensome permitting process" that the Energy Dept said in a report earlier this year could cost the industry upwards of $66-bil by 2025. HR 6, the energy bill being debated on the House floor Thursday contains similar language sparing hydraulic fracturing from the Clean Water Act, but it does not have a comparable stormwater provision. This story was originally published in Platts Natural Gas Alert http://www.naturalgasalert.platts.com
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