Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands Act - Grants any state sole authority to promulgate or enforce any regulation, guidance, or permit requirement regarding the treatment of a well by the application of fluids under pressure to which propping agents may be added for the expressly designed purpose of initiating or propagating fractures in a target geologic formation in order to enhance production of oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on or under land within the boundaries of that state.
Subjects such a well treatment on federal land to state law as well.
[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1234 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1234
To clarify that a State has the sole authority to regulate hydraulic
fracturing on Federal land within the boundaries of the State.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 26, 2013
Mr. Inhofe (for himself, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Portman, Mr. Roberts, Mr.
Sessions, Mr. Paul, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Risch, Mr. Scott, Mr.
Cruz, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Lee, Mr.
Boozman, Mr. Hoeven, and Mr. Cornyn) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To clarify that a State has the sole authority to regulate hydraulic
fracturing on Federal land within the boundaries of the State.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Fracturing Regulations are Effective
in State Hands Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) hydraulic fracturing is a commercially viable practice
that has been used in the United States for more than 60 years
in more than 1,000,000 wells;
(2) the Ground Water Protection Council, a national
association of State water regulators that is considered to be
a leading groundwater protection organization in the United
States, released a report entitled ``State Oil and Natural Gas
Regulations Designed to Protect Water Resources'' and dated May
2009 finding that the ``current State regulation of oil and gas
activities is environmentally proactive and preventive'';
(3) that report also concluded that ``[a]ll oil and gas
producing States have regulations which are designed to provide
protection for water resources'';
(4) a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency,
entitled ``Evaluation of Impacts to Underground Sources of
Drinking Water by Hydraulic Fracturing of Coalbed Methane
Reservoirs'', found no evidence of drinking water wells
contaminated by fracture fluid from the fracked formation;
(5) a 2009 report by the Ground Water Protection Council,
entitled ``State Oil and Natural Gas Regulations Designed to
Protect Water Resources'', found a ``lack of evidence'' that
hydraulic fracturing conducted in both deep and shallow
formations presents a risk of endangerment to ground water;
(6) a January 2009 resolution by the Interstate Oil and Gas
Compact Commission stated ``The states, who regulate
production, have comprehensive laws and regulations to ensure
operations are safe and to protect drinking water. States have
found no verified cases of groundwater contamination associated
with hydraulic fracturing.'';
(7) on May 24, 2011, before the Oversight and Government
Reform Committee of the House of Representatives, Lisa Jackson,
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,
testified that she was ``not aware of any proven case where the
fracking process itself has affected water'';
(8) in 2011, Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey
stated, ``We have not seen evidence of any adverse effect as a
result of the use of the chemicals that are part of that
fracking technology.'';
(9)(A) activities relating to hydraulic fracturing (such as
surface discharges, wastewater disposal, and air emissions) are
already regulated at the Federal level under a variety of
environmental statutes, including portions of--
(i) the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33
U.S.C. 1251 et seq.);
(ii) the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et
seq.); and
(iii) the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.);
but
(B) Congress has continually elected not to include the
hydraulic fracturing process in the underground injection
control program under the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C.
300f et seq.);
(10) in 2011, the Secretary of the Interior announced the
intention to promulgate new Federal regulations governing
hydraulic fracturing on Federal land; and
(11) a February 2012 study by the Energy Institute at the
University of Texas at Austin, entitled ``Fact-Based Regulation
for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development'', found
that ``[n]o evidence of chemicals from hydraulic fracturing
fluid has been found in aquifers as a result of fracturing
operations''.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF FEDERAL LAND.
In this Act, the term ``Federal land'' means--
(1) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the Federal
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));
(2) National Forest System land;
(3) land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of
Reclamation; and
(4) land under the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers.
SEC. 4. STATE AUTHORITY.
(a) In General.--A State shall have the sole authority to
promulgate or enforce any regulation, guidance, or permit requirement
regarding the treatment of a well by the application of fluids under
pressure to which propping agents may be added for the expressly
designed purpose of initiating or propagating fractures in a target
geologic formation in order to enhance production of oil, natural gas,
or geothermal production activities on or under any land within the
boundaries of the State.
(b) Federal Land.--The treatment of a well by the application of
fluids under pressure to which propping agents may be added for the
expressly designed purpose of initiating or propagating fractures in a
target geologic formation in order to enhance production of oil,
natural gas, or geothermal production activities on Federal land shall
be subject to the law of the State in which the land is located.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
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