Rep. Moses’ HB 1085 would regulate hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Disclosure: my sister-in-law has had her ground water contaminated down in Texas, such that applying fire to it causes it to develop a plastic skin — so I’m biased on the subject.
Anyway, this bill defines the term as meaning “the process of injecting specially blended liquids and propping agents under high pressure to create fractures in underground formations through which oil, water, or gas can flow into a wellbore. The term includes the acquisition of source water, well construction, well stimulation, and waste disposal. The term does not include the underground injection of natural gas for the purpose of storage.”
It assigns to the Natural Resource Commission the task of regulating fracking. An operator would require to obtain approval for an environmental compliance plan that includes, (1) well location and total depth; (2) A list of injection fluids and propping agents used in the hydraulic fracturing process; (3) The chemical constituents and additives used in, and wastes generated during, the hydraulic fracturing process; (4) A detailed geographic analysis of the well and its surrounding area, including the rock type and the direction and magnitude of regional tectonic stresses; (5) The results of any predrilling or prealteration survey performed on the well with respect to the hydraulic fracturing process; and (6) An analysis of whether the proposed hydraulic fracturing process will pollute or otherwise endanger water or land in Indiana.
It also contains a provision that requires the Commission to come up with a process whereby an operator could be required to disclose a proprietary formula in the case of a medical emergency – e.g., if there is a suspicion that the fluids used in fracking are related to someone’s health issue, and it would be useful for medical professionals to know what chemicals are involved.
I’m sure that Big Oil would never pollute your sister-in-law’s groundwater, or anybody else’s. Heck, Big Oil’s run by humanoids, after all, who would never put profit above everything else.
And if they did, well you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Nothing to see here. Move along now.
While do have serious concerns about pollution with this practice, I have lingering worries as to the possibilities of earthquakes caused by the activities. Particularly in some of the same areas where oil production does/has occurred such as southwestern Indiana. This area is known to have many earthquake potential areas some of which have not been active for many years, but the faults do exist and some are only speculated to exist. The recent quakes in areas where operations are occurring and where earthquake activities have historically been very rare to unknown simply raises questions that need more answers.
Like you, Jack, I agree that the pollution is an issue, but I don’t care about the earthquakes.
You can’t cause an earthquake that wouldn’t have happened anyhow. The only think you’ve done is cause it to be sooner than it would have, and, less severe than it would have been. The longer two plates build up pressure, the bigger the earthquake will be when they finally snap.
This seems like a lot of regulation, some of it being almost impossible to comply with (“An analysis of whether the proposed hydraulic fracturing process will pollute or otherwise endanger water or land in Indiana.” being pretty vague).
You need to weight costs vs. benefits. Fracking is revolutionary. It has literally changed the game in the US. It has made the refining and chemical industries competitive again, when just a few short years ago they were about to be offshored.
There is so much oil coming out of North Dakota due to fracking that the price of oil in the central US is 10% lower than the world oil price. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
The drive to “list the chemicals” is something that sounds good to the average layperson, especially liberals, but in practice is of little real value, seeing as how linking chemicals to actual disease is guesswork at best. At worst it just enables fear mongering.