Click here to sign the online letter campaign from EarthJustice.org
It’s hard to go a day without hearing something in the news about the consequences of the oil and gas drilling rush across the United States.
Drillers Need To Clean Up Their Act
The rush is due in part to the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—in which drillers blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the ground to force out the oil and gas. But the drilling boom has also been sped along by industry deregulation.
Thanks to exemptions from our bedrock environmental laws, oil and gas drilling operations don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else. Three bills introduced in Congress would change this.
The FRESHER Act would eliminate a Clean Water Act exemption that allows oil and gas to sidestep the same stormwater runoff permitting requirements that every other industry meets. The BREATHE Act would eliminate an unfair loophole in the Clean Air Act for oil and gas companies. The FRAC Act would require oil and gas companies to disclose the toxic chemicals used in fracking, and would close a special interest loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure our groundwater is protected.
Read more and sign the petition online at EarthJustice.org