Reply #16

http://www.htrnews.com/usatoday/article/39194977?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

Congressional hearing in Denver tackles fracking

8:28 PM, May. 2, 2012

DENVER (WTW) — Western state officials took turns bashing the federal government Wednesday at a congressional field hearing on proposed nationwide drilling rules on hydraulic fracturing.

The field hearing by the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources was called in response to last month's announcement by the Obama administration that it would seek coordinated federal oversight of natural gas production. The Interior Department, meanwhile, is expected to issue new rules in the next few weeks on natural gas drilling on public lands

The federal oversight was denounced by officials from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas production.

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"This administration's anti-energy policies continuously hinder rather than help job creation and energy production," Lamborn said.

But the Washington-bashing session veered off script when two Democrats on the panel, and a citizen fracking opponent called to testify, blasted suggestions that there's no need for national health and safety regulation.

"Do Coloradans react differently to water pollution?" asked a skeptical Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who attended the field hearing and questioned the state officials who argued against national safety regulation. After Clarke testified that Utah saw no water contamination in 50 years, Holt said that perhaps that was because the state wasn't looking.

The subcommittee also heard from a Colorado mom who has tried unsuccessfully to block a gas drill planned within 600 yards of her daughter's elementary school.

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