E&E News PM
October 11, 2011
House GOP Renews Request for Salazar Fracking Testimony
Mike Soraghan
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R., WA) reiterated his request that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar appear before the Committee and testify about the new regulations the Department of Interior is considering with respect to hydraulic fracturing on public lands. The Department is considering a requirement for those drilling on federal lands to disclose the chemicals they use during fracturing. And Salazar has said the new rules might address more than just chemical disclosure. In a letter to Secretary Salazar, Congressman Hastings asks “[i]n the spirit of transparency and full disclosure” that Secretary Salazar testify before the Committee, noting that the Committee has the responsibility “to carefully examine this issue and ensure any action proposed by the Department is within the law and takes into consideration the impacts on jobs, communities, revenues, states and our economy.” Chairman Hastings first wrote Secretary Salazar a letter on December 1, 2010 asking him to testify on this issue before the Interior Department imposed new regulations. Salazar responded to Chairman Hastings’ first letter assuring him that if the Department moved forward with fracking requirements, they would do so “in a fashion that fully considers public and Congressional concerns.”