EPA Guidance Coming on Use of Diesel In Hydraulic Fracturing at Oil, Gas Wells

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency will issue guidance soon on the use of diesel fuel as a chemical additive in hydraulic fracturing fluids for oil and natural gas production, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said April 26. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is exempt from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the law's Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, except when diesel fuel is used in the process. Some companies use diesel fuel in fracturing fluids, and the question that has surfaced in a federal court and before Congress is what regulatory action is required from EPA to deal with that use (42 ER 818, 4/15/11).