The Policy Initiative issued “Legal Fractures: Why the Voluntary Chemical Disclosure Registry Fails as a Regulatory Compliance Tool,” a report questioning the reliance of eleven states on a third party website for oil and gas industry reporting requirements. The two-year-old registry, FracFocus, is intended to provide information to the public about the chemicals used in unconventional drilling techniques like hydraulic fracturing. But several design flaws make it an inadequate tool for regulatory compliance. The report is available here.
Update: In an April 23 statement responding to “Legal Fractures,” officials from the Groundwater Protection Council (GWPC), one agency involved in creating FracFocus, indicated they do notify states when companies file. According to EnergyWire, in a story that ran April 24, 2013, “[i]t is then up to state officials to determine if the disclosures were filed in time and whether companies are following the rules governing trade secrets, the GWPC statement said.” We will reach out to the GWPC to learn more about the process they outlined in their statement.
