Fracking Disclosure Details Delayed In Texas

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

November 28, 2011 | 1:45 PM

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Texas Governor Rick Perry signed the fracking disclosure bill into law this spring

Fracking disclosure guidelines will be a bit delayed in Texas.
Of the seven states that require natural gas drillers to disclose what chemicals they use during hydraulic fracturing, Texas is the only state to do-so via law.
The Lone Star State became the first in the nation to pass a fracking disclosure law this spring, but the legislation was vague on details:

Many of Texas’ details still need to be sorted out, though. While the law sets broad disclosure parameters, lawmakers are leaving its details up to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the energy industry and public utilities. “The Railroad Commission has to draft regulation,” explained Blackmon. “How the reporting will take place, what the due date is.” The commission has until July 1, 2012 to finish its work, but Blackmon said the goal is to wrap things up by January 1.

Our sister site, StateImpact Texas, reports the Railroad Commission is now postponing a decision on those new regulations. It’s unclear when the panel, which regulates energy issues, will issue its guidelines.
Pennsylvania will likely become the second state to pass a disclosure law in the near future. Both impact fees in front of the General Assembly include language mandating well-by-well chemical reports, which would be posted on a public website.
Energy companies are already required to report chemicals to the Department of Environmental Protection, but the agency doesn’t make the lists public.