Washington (Platts)--24Jul2013/407 pm EDT/2007 GMT

The US Environmental Protection Agency's decisions to abandon investigations after initial conclusions of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing in Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania has damaged public perception of fracking and hurt the US oil and gas industry, House Republicans said at a subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

"The public needs to trust the work that states and the EPA are doing to safely regulate these practices," said Representative Randy Hultgren, an Illinois Republican, during the House Science subcommittee hearing on fracking. "Unfortunately, many of EPA's recent actions, I believe, have severely harmed the public trust necessary for the agency to accomplish this core mission."

Last month, the EPA turned its probe of groundwater contamination outside Pavillion, Wyoming over to state officials, roughly 18 months after the federal agency issued a draft report linking contamination to gas field fracking.

"EPA's science is so bad when it comes to Pavilllion, Wyoming, that it has embarrassed me as a previous defender of the EPA," said Representative Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican and chairwoman of the energy subcommittee. "It humiliated and destroyed a lot of opportunities for fracking by industry in Wyoming."

Lummis called the draft report on contamination a "big lie," which she accused the agency of leaking to the New York Times as an excuse "to regulate and scare people and make Wyoming look bad."

The Pavillion decision followed EPA's earlier decisions to pull back from initial contamination findings in Dimock, Pennsylvania and Parker County, Texas.

Representative Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican, said the Pavillion case was "the most recent example of the agency employing a 'shoot first, ask questions later' policy toward unconventional oil and gas production."

The decisions have also opened up skepticism of the EPA's multi-year probe into the impact of fracking on groundwater, the first draft of which is expected to be released late next year.

"Given EPA's rush to judgment in Wyoming, Texas, and Pennsylvania, we should question whether the agency's ongoing study is a genuine, fact-finding, scientific exercise, or a witch-hunt to find a pretext to regulate," Stewart said.

"Why should we trust EPA's conduct in this study because of your past record?" asked Representative Ralph Hall, a Texas Republican.

During the hearing, Fred Hauchman, director of EPA's office of science policy, defended the agency's ongoing work.

"I am quite confident that there is a thorough consideration of the implications of any decisions that come out of the EPA," Hauchman said. "I am confident in the scientific integrity of the research that's being conducted."

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican and climate change skeptic, criticized efforts to undermine fracking as motivated by environmentalists and others with a "hatred of the oil industry."

These industry critics "never give the oil industry credit for the fact that before we started using oil as a major source of energy the health of our people was being affected dramatically by mountains of horse manure that were piling up in our urban areas," Rohrabacher said. "The oil industry actually has helped give us a more healthful way of life for everyone who lives in an urban area."

--Brian Scheid, brian.scheid@platts.com --Edited by Derek Sands, derek.sands@platts.com

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