SEC Bears Down on Fracking

[WhiteTara]

Source: wsj

WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking oil and gas companies to provide it with detailed information—including chemicals used and efforts to minimize environmental impact—about their use of a controversial drilling process used to crack open natural gas trapped in rocks.

The federal government's investor-and-markets watchdog is stepping into the heated environmental debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," according to government and industry officials, even as state and federal environmental officials have begun to bring greater pressure on the industry. The process, which involves pumping water, chemicals and sand underground to free difficult-to-reach natural gas in shale basins, has come under criticism from environmental groups ad some lawmakers over concerns toxins in the mix may contaminate air and water.

The SEC move shows the broad interest among Washington regulators in taking a closer look at fracking and suggests companies that are betting billions of dollars on the technology will increasingly need to weigh disclosing techniques they often consider proprietary. Battles over disclosure have already broken out at the state level, including in states such as New York and Pennsylvania that sit on the giant Marcellus Shale, an underground formation that has become a fracking hotbed because of the large quantities of natural gas there. Just last week, Noble Energy Inc. paid $3.4 billion for a stake in developing 663,350 acres there.

Regulators in several states have identified cases in which drilling—although not necessarily the fracturing process in particular—has allowed natural gas to seep into residential water wells, and at least one scientific study has linked drilling and gas contamination more broadly. But there have been few if any documented cases of contamination by the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. The industry acknowledges that improperly constructed wells can allow gas to escape, but says such cases are rare and aren't directly tied to fracturing itself.

In the past, the SEC has trained its attention on other areas of concern, such as subprime mortgages and credit-default swaps, and has asked companies to provide additional information to investors. Government officials said the SEC's interest in fracking is in ensuring investors are being told about risks a company may face related to its operations, such as lawsuits, compliance costs or other uncertainties. Other federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency are collecting information about fracking, but those efforts are separate from the SEC.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904009304576528484179638702.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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A little bit of good news.

[drm604]

1. This is good.

:applause:

[KT2000]

2. Now this is smart

who is going to bail out the mess they will make with our dwindling water supplies and other health and environmental damage. This is a good sign!!

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. More 2012 election BS. Are they going to regulate them in the end?

No.

[maryf]

20. We need to see fracking criminalized...

no regulations can make it safe...

[UnrepentantLiberal]

22. But I keep seeing these commercials that say it's totally safe.

They wouldn't lie, would they?

[Lunabelle]

3. Well now.

Just because BP and Shell say it's safe don't make it necessarily so. Why should we ever trust these entities when it comes to environmental safety?

[ixion]

5. Most counties want you to have a septic tank rather than a dry compost toilet

but yet they allow these bozos to pump who-knows-what-all into the ground water.

:wtf:

[JJW]

6. Like the tobaco industry

they will lie for short term gain. Too bad Obama's EPA is extinct.

[Supersedeas]

17. Like tobacco, we are talking big big money here

[Demeter]

7. Not the EPA?

Irrational choice of enforcement...unless it ISN"T enforcement, but license..

[WhiteTara]

9. EPA is conducting its own investigation

on the scientific/health side. SEC is going after fraud in the docs.

[stlsaxman]

16. Excellent! Thanks for the clarification. nt

[lonestarnot]

8. What, somebody made them drink a glass of water affected by fracking or what?

[Overseas]

10. Good. Hydraulic fracturing should be watched. Quick & dirty techniques maximize quarterly profits

but endanger the national health security of the whole country.

I hope that the oil industry can be forced to accept lower profit margins in order to use less toxic techniques to extract the oil.

Because with BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster they were allowed to dump millions of gallons of poisonous Corexit into the Gulf just to disperse the oil to improve the look of the disaster and protect BP's bottom line.

Letting the oil industry "self-regulate" has not prioritized our national health security and environment, in spite of the billions of tax dollars we have invested in their R&D. Our billions weren't used to improve safety and clean up technologies. It was really disgusting watching the clean up of the Deepwater Horizon blowout using technologies from the 80's.

What are our billions of tax subsidies for Big Oil for, if not to help find less toxic and environmentally destructive ways to get the oil we want?

[cyberpj]

11. Why SEC and not EPA? What am I missing? nt

[primavera]

14. Yeah, that was kind of my thought as well

But EPA is just those tree hugging, dirt worshipping, hippie types. SEC protects something far more important than the environment, namely, money.

[WhiteTara]

15. EPA is conducting its own study

according to the article. I look forward to what is happening there. I wish Carol Browning had come back to the EPA, but she was much to good at her job.

[primavera]

18. I don't doubt that they are

But how much interference do you imagine EPA must be getting from Congressional conservatives, the administration, corporations, well, in short, pretty much everyone, to prevent them from publishing truthful findings that can only make the almighty oil and gas industry, and their puppets in government, look exceedingly bad?

[WhiteTara]

19. Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion

In the end, he was off the streets.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WhiteTara.

[Supersedeas]

13. You mean the Exxon Mobile commercials weren't enough?

[UpInArms]

21. nice post n/t

[No Elephants]

23. Let's see if anything actually comes of this before we either rejoice or despair.

Shouldn't the Dept. of the Interior be involved, along with the EPA and the SEC?