Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Encana asks EPA to suspend Wyoming fracking comment period

The owner of a central Wyoming gas field where federal regulators suggested a link between a drilling technique and groundwater pollution asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to suspend public comment on the draft report. Gov. Matt Mead, meanwhile, was back in Cheyenne on Monday after making a secret trip to Pavillion last week to talk to locals about their well water. Encana officials say the EPA hasn't been sufficiently clear about which specific questions and topics the comments from the public, the company and government agencies are supposed to cover. The company also is seeking more of the data that went into preparing the document and has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get it. "For us to be able to comment on the draft study to the extent that we want to and feel is appropriate, we need to have the full information and data that we requested. We feel that is very important to us to get a full response," Encana spokesman Doug Hock said. EPA officials said they were reviewing the letter. A group representing landowners in the Pavillion area objected to Encana's push to suspend the public comment period amid the company's efforts to fault publicly much of EPA's methodology and draft findings...more

Why won't EPA release the data they used for the draft report?  Did the company really have to file a FOIA to get data?  Another example of Obama's transparency.

1 comment:

Turleyt said...

I watched GASLAND, the movie, (finally) last week. It did not miss my attention that RED CHINA OWNS MUCH OG THE GAS FIELDS IN THE MIDWEST. I just had the thought the same may be true of the field in this discussion.