WASHINGTON, DC – Comments from North Dakota’s director of the Oil and Gas division of the Department of Mineral Resources caused a stir in the oil industry. Lynn Helms was quoted in media reports as saying that the EPA could institute a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a technique key to oil production in the state’s oil fields, as early as this January. But after a meeting with EPA officials, Senator John Hoeven says there are no plans for such a moratorium in the works.
In a press release Hoeven announced that the Environmental Protection Agency has clarified that it is not planning a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in North Dakota. The agency will be providing guidelines that state regulators can use to draft rules governing the use of diesel fuel in fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Those guidelines are expected to be communicated to state regulators in January.
Hoeven had arranged a conference call on the matter with EPA officials Cynthia Dougherty, Director of the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, and Ann Codrington, Director of the Drinking Water Protection Division, who said the agency will provide a process for the state of North Dakota to provide input on the diesel fracking guidelines before they’re finalized. The officials told Hoeven that the state will continue to have primary regulatory control over this issue.
“At a time when western North Dakota needs to attract private-sector investments in everything from housing to grocery stores to hotels and restaurants, the EPA must provide the kind of certainty investors need to make decisions,” Hoeven said in his press release.
The EPA is working on a definition for diesel, which is added in minute amounts to fracking fluids for lubrication and to prevent freezing. Hoeven said the definition needs to be realistic, considering diesel is a product of petroleum, which is being recovered.
Hoeven arranged today’s call to address concerns from residents and the industry that the agency was planning a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.
