The EPA’s Inspector General announced this week that the EPA was rejecting the request of a U.S. Senator to stop a study on the ability of the agency and states to manage water contamination associated with fracking.
The request was made in a letter by Senator James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, to EPA Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins, Jr. According to Senator Inhofe, the Inspector General’s study is wasteful and duplicative. However, Elkins responded that the EPA would continue with its study, which will assess state-by-state the respective authorities for regulating fracking. The EPA study will also “identify potential threats to water resources from hydraulic fracturing and evaluate the EPA’s and states’ responses to them.”
Senator Inhofe has been joined by Senators David Vitter, R-Louisiana, Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in trying to stop the EPA project, claiming that the EPA is “overreaching,” and that spending money on such studies is “fraud and abuse” by the EPA. However, the EPA and Elkins have responded to these efforts by reminding the Senators that the EPA Inspector General’s office is designed to investigate and function independently from Congress.
For further updates on the EPA’s study on fracking, stay tuned to this blog, or contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.
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