Casey eyes Senate energy bill for tougher controls on gas ‘fracking’

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) signaled on Tuesday that he will seek to require new EPA regulation of a controversial onshore natural gas drilling technique in the upcoming Senate energy bill.

Casey’s effort is sure to face heavy resistance from energy producers that have warned the EPA rules would create new costs that makes some gas production uneconomical.

Casey is pushing legislation that would bring new Safe Drinking Water Act controls over “hydraulic fracturing,” or “fracking,” which involves high-pressure injections of chemicals, water and sand to break apart rock formations and enable trapped gas to flow.

The technique has helped enable a boom in development of gas from shale rock formations in a number of states, including Pennsylvania. The viability of shale gas has helped boost U.S. proven gas reserves to their highest level in more than 30 years, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

But it has also brought concerns about contamination of groundwater and drinking water supplies. Casey’s bill would end an exemption from certain EPA rules contained in a 2005 energy statute, and would also compel new disclosure of chemicals that companies are using.

“One issue that I want to take this opportunity to raise is the whole fracking issue,” Casey told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday.

“I would like to ... at least try to make progress on significant elements of it,” he said of including his bill in wider Senate energy legislation expected on the floor as soon as next week. “It may not be possible in this kind of a debate but I am certainly going to try.”

Casey said he would seek to include his plans in the underlying bill or offer them as an amendment.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has launched a probe of fracking, and EPA is also studying the health and environmental effects associated with the drilling technique.