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Why is hydraulic fracturing regulated differently in different states?
Why is hydraulic fracturing regulated differently in different states? Would there be any benefit to having one sweeping federal policy to regulate hydraulic fracturing across all 50 states? Different fracking policies across different states seems inefficient to me. What do you think?
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2 Answers
There is a very simple answer to this one. Different states have different attitudes toward numerous issues, including oil and gas production. In states like Texas or Oklahoma, where fracking has taken place for many years, people don't operate under the same sort of fear they do in New York where it is relatively new. Things that are new and have been presented in a scary light in major newspapers are likely to be regulated differently.
It probably would be more efficient to have a sweeping federal policy, but it will never happen. States will insist on being able to set their own rules. New York will never agree to be governed by the same fracking regulations that cover Texas.
An exemption from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) for hydraulic fracturing was inserted into the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a bill carefully shepherded through Congress by then Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, one of the largest oil and gas service companies in the world and one of the largest suppliers of fracturing fluids. This history has served to make many people skeptical about the safety of hydraulic fracturing. If it's so safe, they wonder, why does it need an exemption from the SDWA?
As a result, regulation was left to the states, a task for which most are ill-suited because they have little expertise in oil and gas regulation. It would indeed be better to have uniform regulations throughout the United States for both the industry and the public. It would make drilling a predictable and consistent enterprise across state boundaries. And, it would provide the public with better assurance that safety and health concerns were being address. This could be achieved by repealing the exemption in the SDWA and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to draw up suitable rules to protect water (and air) quality around drilling sites.
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