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EPA Gets a Congressional Grilling Over Recent Fracking Report

Kris Connor / Getty Images

Gasland director Josh Fox (R) with actor Mark Ruffalo on Capitol Hill last February.


Amidst all the hoopla and press coverage of Gasland director Josh Fox getting ejected from a Congressional hearing this week, an actual hearing did take place. The House subcommittee on Energy and the Environment took testimony Wednesday on the EPA’s Pavilion, Wyo. report, which made a “likely” link between fracking and drinking water contamination. The controversial report is the first of its kind to make that assertion. Maryland Republican Andy Harris led the hearing, which became contentious. High Country News reported on the back-and-forth between the EPA officials and industry representatives.

The hearing, led by Andy Harris, subcommittee chairman and Maryland Republican, questioned the scientific integrity of a draft report on fracking-caused groundwater contamination released by the Environmental Protection Agency Dec. 8. Since its release, the State of Wyoming and industry representatives have attacked the draft report.  They don’t like its conclusions: that fracking in the area around Pavillion, Wyo. was likely the cause of ground water pollution in the area.
Testimony from the study’s opponents attacked those results.
“The EPA’s own data contained within [the report] doesn’t support the conclusions presented up front,” said Kathleen Sgamma, an industry representative from the Western Energy Alliance, sitting on the witness panel. “We are left wondering why the EPA would jump to conclusions, proceeding without State input or peer review.”

Read more about Wednesday’s testimony from the High Country News here. The House subcommittee on Energy and Environment live streams its hearings, and posts the archives online. But several attempts to view them on this computer were unsuccessful.

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