PROTECTING ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

Proposed Oil Spill Bill Requires More Disclosure from Frackers

News Inferno (Jul 19 2010)

A new bill, HR3534, which recently passed in the House Natural Resources Committee, would require drilling companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing on federal lands to disclose the chemicals they are using. While the legislation requires drillers to disclose "the chemical constituents of mixtures, Chemical Abstracts Service numbers, and material  safety data sheets," they are not required to publicly disclose "proprietary chemical formulas," falling short of what environmentalists want.