It's an improvement, but it doesn't go far enough and it's not even in
the books yet. This probably means Big Energy will have time to water
down the already watered down rules. The proposed new rules include
publishing a list of the chemicals being used for the public but there
are of course, loopholes.
Interior Secretary Salazar claims that the requirement for using the
loopholes are going to be limited but if history tells us anything about
this industry and their relationship with governments, the loopholes
will be miles wide and abused early and often.
The other problem is that the new rules will not force the fracking companies to publish the chemicals before drilling, so there could be many unpleasant surprises for local communities with their drinking water.
For this new proposal to work, it's going to require some tough minded
people to hold Big Energy accountable and there's very little history
that suggests we will see that. Even if it passes "as is" the next
administration could easily lower the bar for Big Energy and ignore
complaints about polluted water sources and side with Big Energy.
No comments:
Post a Comment