Thursday, June 03, 2010

Wyoming set to require reporting of 'fracking' chemicals, but trade secrets will be protected

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is expected to vote Tuesday in favor of "tough new rules aimed at tightening state oversight" of hydraulic fracturing by oil and gas drillers, Phil Taylor of Environment and Energy News reports.

The rules would require reporting of the chemicals used in "fracking," something the industry has successfully resisted in other states and at the federal level. "Wyoming would become the first state to require companies to submit a list of such chemicals and their concentrations to regulators as part of the permitting process," Taylor notes. Fracking "has been blamed for the contamination of three residential wells near the ranching town of Pavillion in southwest Wyoming."

State Oil and Gas Supervisor Tom Doll told Taylor that the reporting would ensure public safety "without peeling the onion down to the formula." The proposed rules note that the state Public Records Act protects "trade secrets, privileged information and confidential commercial, financial, geological or geophysical data furnished by or obtained from any person." (Read more; subscription required)

Meanwhile, Eryn Gable of E & E reports that 42 percent of the voting shareholders of Williams Cos., a natural-gas giant, voted for a resolution that would have required the company to reveal more about the financial risks associated with fracking. "The vote comes on the heels of similar proposals at Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and EOG Resources Inc., where more than 30 percent of shareholders voted in support of a similar resolution, and Exxon Mobil Corp., where the measure received 26 percent support," Gable reports. "Organizers were initially expecting the measures to garner 20 percent of shareholder votes." (Read more; subscription required)

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