Contacts:
Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-9797
Katie Brown Katie_Brown@epw.senate.gov (202) 224-2160
Inhofe Comments on EPA Announcement Regarding Wastewater Discharge Regulation
Effort part of regulatory assault against one of America’s most productive job-creating sectors
Washington, DC – Senator James M. Inhofe, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today commented on the Obama Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that the Agency intends to develop standards for wastewater discharges.
“In their relentless effort to put America’s producers out of business, I will be closely monitoring EPA’s upcoming actions following today’s announcement that the agency will be developing standards for oil and gas wastewater discharges,” Senator Inhofe said. “America’s immense shale deposits are predominantly located in areas of the country where the states - not the federal government - primarily regulate oil and gas development. In such states as Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and North Dakota, a virtual boom in natural gas and oil development is transforming America's energy outlook, due in no small measure to the absence of federal red tape.
“Unfortunately, this lack of federal control has not gone unnoticed by the current administration and the environmental lobby. Looking to reverse America's newfound status as the world's largest natural gas producer, many on the left are now pressing a sympathetic Obama administration to flex its regulatory muscles and expand its reach over America’s oil and gas industry, one that for decades has been effectively and efficiently regulated by states. From the EPA and DOE to the BLM and SEC, this administration has unleashed an unprecedented regulatory assault against one of America’s most productive job creating sectors.
“Even Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), a Democrat, said in April at the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on hydraulic fracturing and water protection that we could learn from such states as Colorado and Oklahoma that "have taken aggressive action to protect the public health of their citizens."
“Calls for increased federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing and America’s oil and gas producers are not based on any credible threat to drinking water. This is all part of Obama’s war on affordable energy, an effort to regulate fossil fuels out of existence. Without hydraulic fracturing, not one cubic foot of shale gas would be commercially producible. If those on the left are successful, they will be responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs and for the elimination of shale gas as a source of abundant, secure, and affordable energy.”
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