GOP Lawmaker Working on Bill That Would Give Fracking Oversight to States

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

February 27, 2013 | 4:24 PM

E&E Daily reports that Congressmen Lee Terry (R-Neb.), and Ed Whitfield (R-Ken.), want to introduce a bill that would strip the federal government of all oversight of fracking and leave it up to the states. Rep. Terry says he’s enlisting the help of Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Shuster. Terry spoke at a natural gas round table at the capitol on Tuesday. More from E&E:

Terry said the measure is targeted at providing the oil and gas industry with the certainty that can attract investments. It would, he said, head off questions from multiple federal agencies, particularly a U.S. EPA “one size fits all” regulation that could essentially ban fracking.
The bill, he said, “would just say something as simple as states have the explicit jurisdiction over fracking based upon their inherent higher knowledge of the geological formations” and clarify that states are in the best position to implement specific regulations.
Terry said he’s also discussing the measure with Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.).