Reports are circulating that there will be a hydraulic fracturing component in the energy and climate change legislation being crafted by a trio of senators, but Washington, DC-based producer trade groups have their reservations.

“It’s hard to figure out where they are on that bill,” said Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

He noted that the staff of the three senators who are writing the legislation — Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Kelsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) — are under “some pressure to deal with hydrofracing.” But staff “[is] not inclined to do something that would threaten natural gas,” he said.

The writers of the bill, which is expected to be unveiled in late April, may include a “Sense of the Senate” resolution on hydrofracing, but it would not compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act, Fuller said.

Hydrofracing, which is used to stimulate many oil and gas wells, is a process in which fluids are injected at high pressure into underground rock formations to fracture the rock and increase the flow of fossil fuels. Environmentalists and others contend that the practice is a threat to public health and the environment, and they have called for EPA regulation of the activity. Producers argue that hydraulic fracturing is safe.

Fuller believes Congress should wait until the EPA completes its current study of the risks of hydrofracing “before they try to do anything more with hydrofracing at the federal level.” Both the EPA and the House Energy and Commerce Committee currently are looking into the adverse risks of hydrofracing on public health and the environment (see Daily GPI, March 19; Feb. 19).

Industry “would be comfortable if [Congress doesn’t] address it in the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill because it already was addressed last year when Congress ordered the EPA study” of hydrofracing, Fuller said (see Daily GPI, June 29, 2009).

“I think that’s where industry would prefer to see things go…Everyone would agree this is the best alternative,” he noted.

Energy analyst Christine Tezak of Robert W. Baird & Co. agrees the climate bill may call for a time-out until the EPA study is completed. “A legislative threat to put hydraulic fracturing under federal and state regulation may be formally delayed until after the [EPA] completes a pending study,” she said. Legislation is pending in both the Senate and House to bring hydrofracing under the regulation of the EPA (see Daily GPI, June 10, 2009).

“There’s talk about that [a hydrofracing component in climate change], but I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Martin Edwards, vice president of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America. He noted that BP America is pushing for a “Sense of the Senate” resolution on hydrofracing to be included in the bill.

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