Washington DC -- Yesterday, Members of the US House of Representatives introduced the “Frack Pack” -- a package of five bills that closes several loopholes in federal environmental laws for oil and gas operations. The introduction follows the recent release of “Roadmap for Reform: Federal and State Action Needed to Protect Water from Upstream Oil and Gas Activities,” a new report from Clean Water Action. The report charts a path for improved implementation of the two primary federal water laws - the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and Clean Water Act -- in order to safeguard sources of drinking water and the nation’s water resources from oil and gas production activities. Clean Water has endorsed the Frack Pack bills.
Andrew Grinberg of Clean Water Action issued the following statement:
“For decades, the fossil fuel industry has worked to create and exploit loopholes in federal law, increasing their profits at the expense of our water, air and communities. It’s way past time to put our communities and our water first -- Congress should pass the Frack Pack to close the loopholes in our bedrock environmental laws. The Biden Administration must also begin to update and fix the regulatory programs meant to protect water quality. In our “Roadmap for Reform” report, Clean Water has detailed how EPA can address problems with the Underground Injection Control (UIC) program in the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act regulations to protect water quality from polluting oil and gas production activities.
We applaud the Frack Pack authors - Representatives Cartwright, DeGette, Schakowski, Clarke and Neguse, for standing up the oil and gas industry and putting clean water, clean air and our communities first.”
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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table.