Oil and gas companies are exempt from federal environmental law designed to prevent industrial waste injection sites from causing earthquakes because they are exempt from "key provisions" of federal hazardous waste laws, Mike Soraghan of Energy and Environment News reports. There are more earthquakes caused by injection of oil and gas waste than documented cases of water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing, he reports. Companies will likely be drilling more injection wells to dispose of fracking waste water because of the natural gas boom. Several recent earthquakes in Arkansas and Ohio have been linked to fracking waste injection.
Seismologist Steve Horton told Soraghan "no one's actually providing any guidelines for how to avoid these problems," and environmentalists say the exemption is an example of why creating loopholes in environmental laws for oil and gas companies is wrong. An Independent Petroleum Association of America representative said "the small number of earthquakes linked to the thousands of oil and gas disposal wells do not show a systemic problem requiring an overhaul of federal rules." He added that closing the loophole in the law would increase costs for the industry.
States can adopt stronger injection laws. Ohio has done this in response to the injection-well earthquakes there, and other states are following suit. The Environmental Protection Agency started a team to develop recommendations for state regulators about man-made earthquakes, and the National Academy of Sciences is studying how several forms of energy production can trigger quakes. (Read more)
Seismologist Steve Horton told Soraghan "no one's actually providing any guidelines for how to avoid these problems," and environmentalists say the exemption is an example of why creating loopholes in environmental laws for oil and gas companies is wrong. An Independent Petroleum Association of America representative said "the small number of earthquakes linked to the thousands of oil and gas disposal wells do not show a systemic problem requiring an overhaul of federal rules." He added that closing the loophole in the law would increase costs for the industry.
States can adopt stronger injection laws. Ohio has done this in response to the injection-well earthquakes there, and other states are following suit. The Environmental Protection Agency started a team to develop recommendations for state regulators about man-made earthquakes, and the National Academy of Sciences is studying how several forms of energy production can trigger quakes. (Read more)
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