November 13, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The oil and gas production industry is failing to report measurable reductions of its impacts on communities and the environment from hydraulic fracturing operations, according to a scorecard report by As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management, Green Century Capital Management, and the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), which benchmarks 24 companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing against investor needs for disclosure of operational impacts and mitigation efforts. 

While scores varied, no firm succeeded in disclosing information on even half of the selected 32 indicators related to management of toxic chemicals, water and waste, air emissions, community impacts, and governance.  Even the highest scoring company provided sufficient disclosure on only 14 of the 32 indicators. The lowest scoring companies provided disclosures on just one or two of the 32 indicators.

"The results of this scorecard show that companies are failing to rigorously disclose the impacts of their hydraulic fracturing operations on communities and the environment," said Richard Liroff, executive director of IEHN. "Data on key metrics remain largely absent, making it difficult for investors and the public to assess and compare companies' performance."

Institutional investors have been pressing oil and gas companies since 2009 for greater disclosure of their risk management practices. Investors have engaged more than two dozen companies, filing nearly 40 shareholder proposals on these issues to date. The shareholder proposals have led to improved disclosures at many of the companies, but the scorecard report notes that much of this disclosure is narrative and qualitative in form, while quantifiable data are lacking.

Of the 32 indicators against which companies were scored, companies performed best on questions regarding disclosures on broader qualitative policies but worst on those questions about quantitative goals and progress metrics.

The industry most commonly reported on three metrics: whether executive compensation is linked to health, environment, and safety performance (71 percent); use of pipelines to transport water in lieu of diesel trucks to lower air emissions (62 percent); and company policies on use of non-potable water for hydraulic fracturing (46 percent). The report notes that companies are least transparent on their process for systematically identifying and addressing operational impacts on local communities.

For more:
- see this report

 

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http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/hydraulic-fracturing-report-card/2013-11-13