Federal Bureau’s Rule on Fracking Violates President’s Open Data Policy

[Panich52]

Federal Bureau’s Rule on Fracking Violates President’s Open Data Policy
By David Manthos on Mar 20, 2015 01:28 pm

Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) consigned the American public to remain ill-informed about hydraulic fracturing taking place on millions of acres of public property. The Bureau’s long-awaited “fracking rule” designates FracFocus, an industry-funded data repository, as the mechanism for public disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing at oil and gas drilling sites on federal and Indian lands. The ruling also affects 58 million acres of "split-estate" lands where the BLM controls the minerals but the surface is owned by private citizens, states, or other non-Federal entities.

Besides the fact that this decision flouts the President’s own Executive Order #13642 on Open Data, why are we so concerned about how the government manages fracking data? The reason is because this decision will deprive property and homeowners, scientists, decision-makers, emergency responders, healthcare professionals, and the general public of effective access to information that is vital to investigating the environmental, social, and public health impacts of modern oil and gas drilling.

We have said this all along, but you might find it more interesting to hear our points reiterated in this fine speech by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA-47) who is a member of the House Natural Resources committee (whom John testified before regarding fracking and transparency only six months before).

More from SkyTruth
http://blog.skytruth.org/2015/03/federal-bureaus-rule-on-fracking.html?utm_source=SkyTruth+Blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9b7307ef10-Mailchimp_blog_email&utm_term=0_740ab48719-9b7307ef10-348102149&m=1
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[HassleCat]

1. Proprietry

Unfortunately, EPA regulations allow chemical manufacturers to hold back specific information about products when disclosing the exact ingredients might enable a competitor to copy a "secret formula" or something similar. The fracking people have been using this loophole to avoid disclosing the specific chemicals they use, even though it's common knowledge which chemicals are injected into the wells. They just don't want to publicly admit to the specific chemicals, because that would help their opponents file lawsuits and win administrative battles over permits and restrictions.