Federal regulators will soon clarify the rules for natural gas companies that inject diesel fuel into the ground as part of their hydraulic fracturing operations, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
The guidance, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says is coming "very shortly," is meant to clear up rules for natural gas producers.
A congressional investigation concluded earlier this year that companies have not secured EPA permits before injecting more than 32 million gallons of diesel fuel and other fluids into the ground in fracturing operations between 2005 and 2009.
States historically have regulated hydraulic fracturing. The technique involves injecting mixtures of water, sand and chemicals including diesel fuel deep underground at high pressures to break up dense shale rock and release gas locked in it. Although Congress exempted most hydraulic fracturing activities from EPA's jurisdiction as part of a 2005 rewrite of the Safe Drinking Water Act, that exception does not apply to diesel -- even though the government only began to regulate it last year.
Jackson insisted that the EPA has authority to regulate diesel fuel in fracturing fluids.
"Our belief is that this is not exempt," she said. "That exception specifically says that diesel is not exempt. So if you are injecting diesel, that is a concern."
Environmental worries
The move comes amid mounting environmental fears about the hydraulic fracturing process, which is being combined with horizontal drilling techniques to extract previously unrecoverable natural gas from shale formations across North America.
Conservationists are concerned about the high water demands of fracturing. Environmentalists warn that natural gas can escape out of poorly designed wells and that chemicals in fracturing fluids can taint nearby water sources.
A blowout at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well in Pennsylvania last week renewed those fears. The incident prompted the company to temporarily stop hydraulic fracturing in the region.
Easing public concerns about the process is key to natural gas development, said Gene Sperling, the chairman of the White House's National Economic Council.
Speaking at an Energy Information Administration conference, Sperling said the energy industry should embrace "common-sense regulation that builds the public trust" that fracturing does not put at risk clean or safe drinking water.
Industry representatives broadly have argued against federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing and insist state officials are better positioned to oversee the work. Although some oil field services companies and natural gas producers have begun voluntarily providing details about the ingredients of their fracturing fluids, there is no federal mandate for that disclosure.
Backing from Shell
Marvin Odum, the president of Shell Oil Co., said the company "supports regulations that require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the process ... and adhere to the highest safety standards."
"Responsible operators should have no problem complying," Odum added.
Odum said that Shell is working toward a goal of recycling 100 percent of the water it uses in its hydraulic fracturing operations.
He insisted that hydraulic fracturing techniques can be used to extract natural gas safely.
"Make no mistake," he said. "It can be done without harming the environment. Anything less is unacceptable."
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