Congressman Has Pushed for More Oversight of Natural Gas Drilling
 
WASHINGTON (April 18, 2012) – Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their new rules that would clean up natural gas drilling practices. Rep. Markey, the Ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, has pushed the natural gas industry to improve their drilling safety performance, including reducing the release of pollution that harms our air and climate.
 
In February of this year, Rep. Markey’s Natural Resources Committee staff released a report on the oversight of natural gas extraction on public lands that found widespread disregard for well-drilling and containment standards and practices. That report, entitled “Drilling Dysfunction” is available HERE.
 
Below is the statement on the EPA rules from Rep. Markey:
 
“These new EPA safety and environmental standards will ensure that less pollution escapes into our air and our atmosphere, and that the natural gas industry won’t be able to escape proper oversight of their practices.
 
“American natural gas will be a vital part of our economic and environmental progress, but only if the industry accepts the fact that the public wants assurances that drilling practices are done safely and don’t result in needless releases of pollution into the environment. These new standards will encourage safer, cleaner natural gas that can then be used to fuel a manufacturing renaissance in America, and cut our use of dirtier fuels like old-style coal power plants.
 
“The natural gas industry should embrace these standards as a responsible way to continue the expansion of domestic natural gas, and should reject the proposed trend towards sending our natural gas abroad, which will raise costs to consumers and industry.”
 
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