Sen James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, introduced two energy-related bills this week, one that says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing under existing law, and a second that clarifies congressional intent in the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act that uncontaminated storm water discharges from oil and gas exploration, production, processing and treatment sites are exempt from the costly EPA storm water program.

Inhofe hopes to include the measures in the Senate’s version of comprehensive energy legislation, according to Will Hart, spokesman for the senator. The bill (S. 837) “simply clarifies existing law” that the EPA lacks authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing, Inhofe said. Hart noted there have been a number of recent lawsuits over whether the EPA possesses authority in this area.

Hydraulic fracturing is used to create small cracks in subsurface geologic formations to allow oil or natural gas to move toward a producing well. Application of hydraulic fracturing to increase recovery is estimated to account for 30% of U.S. recoverable oil and gas reserves and has been responsible for the addition of more than 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 Tcf of natural gas to meet the nation’s energy needs.

EPA has completed a comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing, reviewing more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, interviewing roughly 50 state and local government agency employees and scores of private citizens. It concluded that “the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into CBM [coalbed methane] wells poses little or no threat to USDW [underground sources of drinking water] and does not justify additional study,” Inhofe said.

The second measure (S. 830) “is necessary because EPA incorrectly believes that construction [of oil and gas exploration sites] can be separate from exploration, production, processing and treatment and, therefore, it has the authority to require [separate] permits for the construction of an oil and gas site,” the Oklahoma senator said.

Department of Energy analysts have estimated that the EPA’s way of thinking could result in the loss of between 1.3 and 3.9 billion barrels of domestic oil and between 15 and 45 Tcf of natural gas between now and 2025, according to Inhofe’s office.

“The bill I introduced…simply frees the sites from having to undertake a burdensome permitting process that was not designed for this industry and will cost the United States valuable energy development.”

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