Texas Fracking Bill: State Becomes First To Require Public Disclosure Of Chemicals

HOUSTON -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed a bill requiring drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use when extracting oil and gas from dense rock formations, the first state to pass such a law.

Several other state agencies have passed regulations forcing some disclosure, but none have made it a law. Texas' law will force drillers to post the chemicals and the amounts used beginning in July 2012.

The issue has taken on national importance as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used in more states to extract once out-of-reach hydrocarbons from impermeable shale formations. Drillers pump chemical-laced water into the ground at high pressure to crack the rock.

Environmental groups worry the chemicals could taint aquifers and water supplies. The industry says the process is safe.

Comments

[timbohp]

11:21 AM on 06/22/2011

Wow! This is the FIRST think I can really get behind Ricky on!

[garymc8]

10:56 AM on 06/21/2011

julieintx say "don't make stuff up" Julie, sweathartdarlinblessyourlittleheart, we don't have to make stuff up to make your state sound CRAZY.
You have GAY GOVERNOR running for the presidency WHILE SECEDING FROM THE USA AS A STATE AND GOVERNOR. Look up crazy and there is a picture of texas in the dictionary.

[wmerr58523]

07:57 AM on 06/21/2011

Can't understand why every state does not require this, The chemicals used are deadly if they get into the water supply which some of these fracking carriers have been caught dumping into the water ways around the country.

[ken607]

07:14 AM on 06/21/2011

NOTHING CLEAN ABOUT COAL, NOTHING NATURAL ABOUT GAS AND FRACKING KILLS THE WATER SUPPLIES it is really that simple. but then again republicans have simple minds!!!

[the5thhorseman]

07:40 AM on 06/21/2011

There's plenty clean about coal...depending upon how you do it. There are zero-emission coal plants in Canada. They're expensive to build, but not nearly as costly as the medical bill for respiratory illnesses if we don't find away to safely burn coal--the one thing that can allow us to terminate our business-relationship with Saudi Arabia.

[ken607]

07:53 AM on 06/21/2011

o ya like the scrubbers that BUSH didnt make the companies put in place after they were on site ready too install. well if they are unwilling to use technology that helps keep this planet clean then they should never be in buisness!

[timbohp]

11:22 AM on 06/22/2011

Yes, and ripping the top of mountains off, is just great for everyone and everything. NOT.

[wmerr58523]

07:58 AM on 06/21/2011

Again, the left squeals and it has to come back being Bush's fault.

[ken607]

08:09 AM on 06/21/2011

funny how you think im a "LEFTY" a "LIBERAL" im an independent! and YES IT IS BUSHES FAULT. you think OBAMA started making the economy drop in 06 by shear will? stop being a TOOL for the party of intolerence and unwillingness to see FACTS. when bush was leaving office 780,000 people A MONTH were losing their jobs. on BUSHES watch he lost over 8 million jobs and this is OBAMAs fault. no man im not a lefty but im in the COMMON SENSE MIDDLE!

[Ben Winslow]

12:02 AM on 06/21/2011

That is so ironic! Texas has been fracked to death ALREADY!

[horsey]

11:42 PM on 06/20/2011

Bad news is about ready to break on frac chemicals when a neo con signs a law of regulation against a corp. My guess is someone filing a lawsuit in Texas has discovered damning information of some sort and Perry's arm is being twisted.

[John Bryant]

08:32 PM on 06/20/2011

So Perry gives them a year feeebie. Whats wrong with NOW?

[horsey]

11:42 PM on 06/20/2011

cosign

[expat50]

07:43 PM on 06/20/2011

I fear will see something like this "Official Government Required Disclosure: This liquid contains fracking chemicals"

[kmswriter]

07:27 PM on 06/20/2011

Okay - so now they will disclose chemicals....now what - frack on??? - Halliburton said it was proprietary info - that ol' competition thingy - how do they suppose to enforce what chemicals will be disclosed..and who is going to do it.....who will oversee the corps when they do drill with the fracking method???? what happens when the oops happens...or the water is contaminated.. or they have a spill and all the pastures are contaminated and the bloated cattle are on their backs???? - How far from a water source will they be allowed to drill???? - Is this going to be done on a rivers edge or Ocean?

So sad....

[kainai]

08:02 PM on 06/20/2011

I guess these issues will be addressed in the next 10-20 years...i.e. after every square foot of land on the planet has been fracked! So disheartening.....I live on a reservation in Alberta where Murphy Oil and Bowood have were given contracts to frack 2/3rds of our land....the tribal council 'ok'd' the deal (each family will get around $2000.00); it is tragic and egregious. The people were never 'truly' informed; the government advised to 'go ahead' because informing the people would be 'too costly.' Madness and......might make the rez uninhabitable one day and then...the Indian problem will truly be history. It all sickens me...but at least Texas (of all the states?) is moving in the right direction. This industry needs intense oversight!

[trucker1000]

09:22 AM on 06/22/2011

Your people SIGNED the deal so it is your own fault. You could have asked more questions no one had a gun to your head. The 2/3 of your land thing sounds like a lot BUT they will only drill a few holes not one every foot Fracking is done way below the water table

[no exit]

06:48 PM on 06/20/2011

Well of course "the industry says it's safe," what the hell else would you expect them to say?

Glance at the bottom line, that is the only thing they give one tinker's damn about - the ONLY thing.

[OkieMon]

06:17 PM on 06/20/2011

what a joke...these fracking companies list "petroleum distillate" as a "chemical" and use as an example of how safe "it" is petroleum jelly in cosmetics....when in reality "petroleum distillate" is "diesel fuel" which is composed of hundreds of distinct chemicals most of them being highly toxic and carcinogenic....

[wyoroughneck]

07:41 PM on 06/20/2011

Yes, the companies list "petroleum distillate" as a chemical. MANY chemicals are produced through fractional distillation of petroleum. From the frac chemical listings I have seen, the
"petroleum distillates" are CAS registry #' 064742-47-8 or "hydrotreated light petroleum distillates"-NOT diesel fuel! When diesel fuel is used in frac'ing, the process falls under EPA regs in the SDWA.
"hydrotreated light petroleum distillates" are found in paints, stains, paint thinners, air fresheners, deodorizers, pesticides, and car wax to name a few. It is NOT recognized as a carcinogen. Learn a little chemistry or do a little research!

[kmswriter]

07:49 PM on 06/20/2011

wyoroughneck - I hear they want to lease your land and use the fracking method in their quest for natural gas.....I guess you are okay with that???/

Hope you have your water protected - so many have already had to resort to bottled water from contamination of wells - what a sorry sort.....

[OkieMon]

10:19 PM on 06/20/2011

you deny diesel is used in slick fracking and you deny diesel is a petroleum distillate and listed as such....never heard of btex ? you deny benzene is a potent carcinogen ? you deny 2-BE is a potent carcinogen ?

[lizipoo]

06:13 PM on 06/20/2011

Jon Stewart hosted Tom Ridge on a recent show and allowed him a moment to shill his warm and fuzzy take on fracking, "we inject huge quantities of water and liquids back into the earth". Jon then caught him by surprise, asking 'just what chemicals are in that liquid???" Ridge could only look embarassed and dart his eyes around looking for an escape hatch.

[kainai]

08:06 PM on 06/20/2011

Thank you Jon!!! Way to go....I wish he would do one of those chalkboard "Beck" sessions on fracking.....could be funny and informative. I wish a fracker could put one of those loud and stinky wells in Ridge's backyard!

[stopthemadness69]

05:56 PM on 06/20/2011

Will these companies have to disclose the chemicals that they consider proprietary and therefore secret? You know like the dispersant used for oil spills, we still don't have a full disclosure on what those are.

[julieintx]

05:39 PM on 06/20/2011

OT, but related. If you're interested in Gulf of Mexico restoration, contact your senator and tell her/him to get the BP fines to be directed to Gulf restoration, instead of general funding. The gulf was in bad shape even before the spill, and neglected by the federal gov. Help turn lemons into lemonade and finally get this long-needed funding for our hardest working body of water

This si te should be all over this bill--too bad they're not (I apologize if I've missed it here). It leads me to believe the people who run the green part of the si te aren't that environmentally literate.

[garymc8]

05:00 PM on 06/20/2011

Texas the poison state