Voted

California’s proposed law (AB 591) to address hydraulic fracturing (fracking) passed a second hurdle, being voted out 5-1 from the state Senate Environmental Quality Committee (EQ). The measure has been sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, but no hearing date has been set. AB 591’s author, Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, told EQ that the proposal is a “modest” attempt to provide state regulators in the Division of Oil and Gas with added information on fracking. Wieckowski emphasized that fracking in some form has been around for the past 50 years in California, but only recently has the oil/gas sector begun to use more sophisticated techniques that carry greater potential impact on the state’s water quality. The bill is aimed at chemical disclosure for operators using the fracking process and comes at a time that Wieckowski said “several reports” from the oil/gas industry have indicated California is on the “cusp of a boom” in unconventional oil/gas recovery because of drilling technique advancement, such as fracking. Chemicals used and sources and amounts of water in the fracking process will be disclosed as a result of AB 591, Wieckowski said.

Texas House lawmakers Sunday night voted to require public disclosure of the chemicals in fluids used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) after disparities with legislation passed earlier by the Senate (see Daily GPI, May 27) were hammered out in conference committee.

Texas House lawmakers Sunday night voted to require public disclosure of the chemicals in fluids used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) after disparities with legislation passed earlier by the Senate (see Shale Daily, May 27) were hammered out in conference committee.

The debate over generating revenue from the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania took a linguistic turn this week when a national tax opponent said that an impact fee working through the General Assembly is actually a tax.

American Petroleum Institute (API) CEO Jack Gerard said regulation of the nation’s shale gas plays would best be handled by state government and cautioned against involvement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The North Dakota Senate voted in March to support hydraulic fracturing and to extend oil tax breaks in the unlikely event that oil prices sharply decline, but turned down a proposal to reduce the top oil tax rate in exchange for higher production totals.

Last week the North Dakota Senate voted to support hydraulic fracturing and to extend oil tax breaks in the unlikely event that oil prices sharply decline, but turned down a proposal to reduce the top oil tax rate in exchange for higher production totals.

The Arlington, TX, City Council voted 8-1 to award Chesapeake Energy Corp. for its Bobcat 1H well on a site that is about a half-mile southwest of the Cowboys Stadium. The approval followed a public hearing and an agreement by Chesapeake to coordinate heavy truck traffic around events at the stadium and the nearby Rangers Ballpark, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. As many as a dozen wells could be placed on Chesapeake’s Truman site accessing the mineral resources of about 1,200 property owners. Some area residents had expressed concerns about traffic and pollution, but others at the council meeting said they supported development of their mineral rights.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee last Thursday voted out legislation that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA).