EXCERPT:"US Representative Maurice Hinchey, a co-sponsor of the FRAC Act, which seeks to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act, plans to move ahead with the legislation, a spokesman, Mike Morosi, said.
He said that the creation of a voluntary chemical registry would not alleviate the need for Congress to pass federal legislation on fracking.
If the industry is willing disclose the information, they should have no problem with the disclosure provisions of the FRAC Act," he said."
Pertaining to the disclosure on the website: "However, chemical data that is considered part of a well servicing company's proprietary business information will not be posted on the website, Nickolaus said."
COMMENT:
A great step in the right direction, yet with industry continuing to hide their "proprietary business information," some of the key toxic chemicals are being withheld from the public, medical teams, and locally elected governing bodies. This is far from "disclosure." Full disclosure from industry is necessary in order to know the direct impact from industry's activities. After all, that is what industry continues to state when another water well is polluted....."Prove it was caused by our drilling.
Representative Markey states that industry's energy bills and activities are "Oil-Above-All". And that is certainly what comes through with yet another industry caveat over the health, welfare and safety of the people, animals and ecosystems.
US Fracking Chemical Registry to go Live in a Few Weeks
Jim Magill, jim_magill@platts.com
Houston (Platts)
31 Mar 2011
An online registry in which exploration-and-production companies will voluntarily disclose the chemicals they use in their US hydraulic fracturing operations is set to be activated in a few weeks, but questions remain as to whether this will satisfy the many critics of fracking.
The registry, part of a website created as a joint effort of the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and the Ground Water Protection Council, "will go live in the second week of April," Mike Nickolaus, GWPC special projects director, said Thursday.
The architects of the website hope that its creation will help calm some of the concerns expressed by property owners and environmental groups over the potential threat that the drilling of natural gas wells could pose to groundwater supplies.
Nickolaus said the chemical registry will allow visitors to access information, on a well-by-well basis, on the components of fracking fluids used in oil- and gas-producing basins across the US. To date, about 75 E&P companies, representing about 80% of US shale gas production, have signed up to take part in the registry program.
