Democrats revive package of bills to clamp down on fracking by Andres Picon, Nov 18, 2025, E&E News
A group of Democrats are reviving a package of bills that would tighten federal regulations for oil and gas drilling, in a rebuttal to expected votes in the House to shore up the energy industry this week.
The five-bill package, dubbed the “Frack Pack,” aims to hold oil and gas companies accountable to national standards for air and water quality. It would also eliminate the so-called Halliburton Loophole, which has exempted fracking fluids from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2005.
“What all of us are hoping is that this will make the oil and gas industry comply with the same environmental regulations as anybody else,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat and the sponsor of the “Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act.”
“If we’re going to be drilling, and if we’re going to be leaning in on drilling, we need to make sure we’re not contaminating our aquifers with harmful chemicals,”
Too Late! Besides, no law or regulation will protect aquifers from frac’ers!DeGette said.
Bills in the Frack Pack, shared first with POLITICO’s E&E News, are sponsored by DeGette and Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.).
The package will serve as a form of Democratic counterprogramming to House Republicans’ efforts this week to support oil and gas production. Lawmakers are set to vote on a spate of Republican-sponsored bills and resolutions focused on refineries, gas exports and drilling restrictions.
But the Democrats’ bills are unlikely to get floor votes this Congress. A variation of the Frack Pack was first introduced in 2009, and the bills have been reintroduced regularly since then without gaining much traction, thanks in part to strong opposition from oil and gas industry groups.
DeGette said the Republican majority’s expected opposition to the legislation is irrelevant to the stated goals of the legislative push.
“This Congress is the least productive Congress ever, I think, and the Republicans don’t seem to be prioritizing the environment,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to push for environmental compliance, especially when we’re talking about safe drinking water.”
DeGette’s home state of Colorado was among the first states to implement hydraulic fracturing, the controversial innovation that drove a boom in American oil and gas production.one of the first places where Encana frac’d and contaminated well water and a creek
A new oil and gas project proposed near her Denver district has generated local pushback over concerns about potential health risks.
She pointed to language in the “FRAC Act” that would close the Halliburton Loophole, requiring companies to publicly disclose which chemicals they are putting in the ground to help extract gas while authorizing EPA to regulate that process.Even if the Orange Oil Bully allowed this act, nothing in it would make frac’ing safe, or protect drinking water and public health. Nothing. This is so gross by the Dems, pushing for these regs enables and aids the frac’ers intending to destroy Aurora Reservoir.
“The problem is, if you don’t have a disclosure requirement, you have no idea what is in this fracking fluid; you just have to go on the assurances that the industry is making,” DeGette said. “That’s not the way our regulatory system works.”Even if USA forced full frac chemical disclosure, companies would just lie, or fake their frac recipes, or just not disclose. Frac’ers do what they want where they want, regs only make it easier for them to pollute
Another part of the package, the “Closing Loopholes and Ending Arbitrary and Needless Evasion of Regulations (CLEANER) Act” would eliminate certain exemptions under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and require oil and gas companies to clean up and dispose of morebut not all? of their waste. The bill is sponsored by Castor, the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy.
The “Focused Reduction of Effluence and Stormwater Runoff Through Hydrofracking Environmental Regulation (FRESHER) Act” is sponsored by Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
It would require a study on the effects of stormwater runoff from oil and gas extraction sites. It would also require drilling companies to make plans to prevent that runoff from polluting streams and acquire certain permits.All bluffery and buffoonery to keep frac’ing going strong. The only way to protect health, air, land and drinking water, is to criminalize frac’ing.
Schakowsky’s “Safe Hydration Is an American Right in Energy Development (SHARED) Act” would require fracking companies to test for water contamination near their drilling sites and to produce reports on the impact their activity has on water quality.Oh! To legalize water pollution! Not smart Dems. Not smart. FFS.
The “Closing Loopholes for Oil and Other Sources of Emissions (CLOSE) Act,” from Clarke, would make oil and gas companies subject to the Clean Air Act’s aggregation requirement, according to a bill summary.
It would also add hydrogen sulfide to the list of air pollutants considered hazardous under the Clean Air Act.decades too late
Refer also to: