Groups want EPA to require oil, gas industry to report to TRI
By Ben Adducchio & Beth Vorhees
October 24, 2012 ·
The Environmental Integrity Project, along with other groups, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday.
An environment advocacy group in Washington petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require oil and gas companies engaged in hydro-fracturing to tell the public what kind of chemicals are being released into the air.
The Environmental Integrity Project wants the EPA to require the extraction industry to report to the national Toxics Release Inventory. Eric Schaeffer is leading the effort.
"Now chemical plants, petroleum refineries, and even coal fired power stations are already required to report under this program along with 24 other industrial categories. EPA has the power to add other sectors that ought to be reporting and we’re asking them today to exercise that authority," he said.
The TRI was enacted in 1986 as Congress’s response to the Bhopal disaster in India.
The TRI requires each industrial facility to report annually on its releases.
"EPA estimates that oil and gas extraction releases 127 thousand tons of hazardous air pollutants a year. That’s about three times the amount that chemical plants and refineries were reported to TRI in 2011," Schaeffer said.
"While the petrochemical industry have had to report releases to TRI for decades, oil and gas is exempt."
The Environmental Integrity Project was established ten years ago in Washington by EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate effective enforcement of environmental law.