House Dem: EPA not doing good enough job monitoring 'fracking'

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/147701-house-democrat-epa-not-doing-a-good-enough-job-monitoring-fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency is not doing a good enough job monitoring the potential public health hazards associated with a controversial natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a House Democrat said.

“So far, EPA has not caught up with the scale of the problem and in fact no one has. I think the drilling is getting ahead of itself,” said Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), a fracking opponent, in a pre-taped interview that aired on the energy-policy program energyNOW! Sunday.

(snip)
Holt, citing the massive increase in fracking in recent years, said EPA is not doing a good enough job overseeing the practice and he called on Congress to give the agency more regulatory authority.

“For nearly a century, the United States of America stood out to all of the world as a country where you could turn on the tap and be assured that you had drinkable, in fact very high-standard, water,” Holt said. “We’re getting away from that.”

[ananda]

1. Understatement.

And so sad.