CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Dozens of environmental groups large and small are urging congressional leaders not to overlook onshore drilling amid debate over how to prevent another oil spill like the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Drilling for oil and gas often occurs in residential areas, yet it uses large volumes of toxic chemicals and creates large amounts of toxic waste, Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society and others wrote in a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The groups want more onshore drilling regulation to accompany new rules offshore.
"Although onshore incidents may not make national headlines, communities across the United States regularly experience tragic incidents of their own," they wrote.
Drinking-water contamination, air pollution, well blowouts and spills have been happening onshore within the past few months, they said.
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Giving more oversight to the federal regulators who failed to prevent the Gulf disaster would be a bad idea, said an industry group, the Western Energy Alliance.
"It doesn't make sense to take more control away from state oil and gas regulators and give it to the federal agency that just oversaw the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of our nation," Marc Smith, executive director of the alliance, said Friday.
He pointed out that 17 Democratic representatives wrote to Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Wednesday, urging the leaders not to have a "knee-jerk" reaction by passing "extraneous proposals" restricting onshore energy development.
What Congress really should do, Smith said, is pass a more predictable process for oil, gas and renewable energy development on public land, one that helps companies be more certain about whether their plans can move ahead.
"That's the real reform that's needed," he said.
One bill before Congress would require companies to disclose to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the chemicals used in a process that improves the productivity of oil and gas wells by pumping water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressure.
Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," opens rock fissures and improves the flow of oil and gas. Companies currently don't have to disclose their fracking recipes, and they say they need to keep the formulas secret for competitive reasons.
That's been a problem in places like Pavillion in central Wyoming, where the EPA has been investigating whether fracking has contaminated residential water wells, said Steve Jones with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, one of the groups that signed the letter to Pelosi and Reid.
