03 Jun Action Alert: Tell BLM No New Fracking on Public Lands

Posted at 22:51h in Frontpage, Take Action by
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June 3, 2013 –

The BLM has “bowed to pressure from the oil and gas industry” and proposed a severely inadequate draft rule to govern fracking on public lands. The draft rule is so weak that it has been called “shoddy protections peddled by the oil and gas industry” and the fracking fluid “disclosure” portion of the rule is said to have been “written by ExxonMobil.”

Take Action: Click here to tell the BLM to stop opening up public lands to fracking and enact strong protections for public health and the environment. For a sample comment letter click here for a word document or click here for a PDF.

The newly released draft rule is riddled with flaws. Some of the draft rule’s failings include:

  • “No setback requirements for how close drilling sites can be to homes and schools.
  • Chemicals used do not have to be disclosed before they are pumped into the ground, preventing communities from testing and monitoring the impact on water supplies.
  • Chemicals can be reported afterwards on FracFocus, an industry-created website, which will make it hard for the public to track and aggregate data. ‘Trade-secret’ chemicals do not have to be reported.
  • Drillers must submit management plans but the rules stop short of banning chemical-filled waste water stored in open air pits.
  • No requirement that nearby water supplies be tested before and after drilling.
  • Rather [than] having to test the integrity of cement barriers in every well, the industry can test one well and assume that sample holds for all similar wells. Cement barriers are the only thing that separates toxic fracking chemicals and groundwater.”
It’s no surprise that the draft rule is so friendly to industry, because according to reports “Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal met more than 20 times in 2012 with industry groups and company executives lobbying on the proposed rule, but only four times with environmental groups.”

Don’t let your government give another handout to the fracking industry – take action and tell BLM to enact protective fracking rules. For a sample comment letter click here for a word document or click here for a PDF.

Click here to read the draft rule. Public comments are due by August 23.

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