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Republicans are losing their minds over the government’s new (weak!) fracking regulations
Republicans are losing their minds over the government’s new fracking regulations
27 Republicans have already introduced a bill to block the rules, which only apply to 10 percent of U.S. fracking
3/20/15
The Interior Department Friday afternoon released some long-awaited regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. They aren’t the biggest deal ever — they only apply to public and Native American lands, which is to say, about ten percent of U.S. fracking operations — but they are the first such rules to be introduced in more than 30 years (the U.S. fracking boom, for context, took off in 2007).
According to the Hill, the rules are “meant, in part, to ease public fears about a practice that involves pumping fluids miles underground to extract oil and gas from small pockets in rock,” which sounds reasonable enough — especially considering what we know (and still don’t know) about the impacts fracking has on public health.
Yet nearly the instant the rules were released, the GOP was on it: 27 Republicans senators introduced a bill intended to block them. (The oil industry is on the attack as well, and two industry groups are already suing the government.)
“This top-down regulation is duplicative, burdensome and ultimately, a direct attack on American energy production, critical tax revenue for our schools and communities, and thousands of good-paying jobs across the nation,” was the not-so-reasonable response of Republican Sen. Steve Daines, of Montana.
“If Interior was half as interested in new production as it is in new regulation, our nation would be in a far better place,” Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, added....
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/20/republicans_are_losing_their_minds_over_the_governments_new_fracking_regulations/
27 Republicans have already introduced a bill to block the rules, which only apply to 10 percent of U.S. fracking
3/20/15
The Interior Department Friday afternoon released some long-awaited regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. They aren’t the biggest deal ever — they only apply to public and Native American lands, which is to say, about ten percent of U.S. fracking operations — but they are the first such rules to be introduced in more than 30 years (the U.S. fracking boom, for context, took off in 2007).
According to the Hill, the rules are “meant, in part, to ease public fears about a practice that involves pumping fluids miles underground to extract oil and gas from small pockets in rock,” which sounds reasonable enough — especially considering what we know (and still don’t know) about the impacts fracking has on public health.
Yet nearly the instant the rules were released, the GOP was on it: 27 Republicans senators introduced a bill intended to block them. (The oil industry is on the attack as well, and two industry groups are already suing the government.)
“This top-down regulation is duplicative, burdensome and ultimately, a direct attack on American energy production, critical tax revenue for our schools and communities, and thousands of good-paying jobs across the nation,” was the not-so-reasonable response of Republican Sen. Steve Daines, of Montana.
“If Interior was half as interested in new production as it is in new regulation, our nation would be in a far better place,” Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, added....
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/20/republicans_are_losing_their_minds_over_the_governments_new_fracking_regulations/
Like the oil industry can't afford to spend a little extra to lessen their devastation at 10 PERCENT of the fracking sites.
Greedy b*stards.
