Friday, August 2, 2013

House Science Committee wants the EPA to change its fracking study

House Science Committee wants the EPA to change its fracking study

click link

snip


A bill being taken up by the House Science Committee would force the EPA to include language in its years-long study on fracking that adds “objective estimates of the probability, uncertainty and consequence of each identified impact, taking into account the risk management practices of states and industry.”
The bill, which is scheduled for mark-up on Thursday, was introduced by the Committee’s Chair, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. As The Hill reported, in a hearing last week Smith accused the EPA of being “complicit” in a push to cut down on hydraulic fracturing, a process that uses chemicals to extract natural gas from rock.
From The Hill:
“The agency should base its work on sound science rather than regulatory ambition. However, if the agency fails to do this, a legislative remedy may be warranted to address the study’s deficiencies,” Smith added.
David Dzombak, who heads a hydraulic fracturing panel of the EPA’s outside Science Advisory Board, said while the study is not providing a broad “quantitative risk assessment,” the entire thing is nonetheless in a “risk framework.”

No comments: