EPA's Fracking Study Prompts Data Quality Concerns From Industry, GOP

摘要

EPA's pending two-year study on the effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water is sparking data quality concerns from industry and a key Senate Republican that the agency took initial steps in conducting the research prior to releasing its final study plan and before issuing or subjecting the methodology to peer review. GOP sources say the agency's preliminary study efforts highlight concerns that the study is seeking to prove fracking is a threat to drinking water in order to justify stricter regulation that the agency is already planning, rather than an objective analysis of the overall process. The criticism over the fracking study marks the latest in a series of GOP criticisms of EPA's scientific methodology, most recently over the underlying risk assessment supporting its utility air toxics rule, echoing previous concerns that the agency's peer review process is often inadequate and opaque and cannot be used to justify stringent regulations.