Physicians Call for Social Responsibility: Close the Halliburton Loopholes

Dear Friends of PSR,

Date: October 30, 2015

RE:  Physicians for Social Responsibility Speak Out on  Government in the Public Interest

The industries that frack for oil and natural gas are exempted from our nation’s basic environmental protection laws. Let’s end that injustice and apply the law of the land to the fracking industry.

Ever wonder how the fracking industry gets away with it?

Fracking for oil and gas results in extreme pollution and threats to health:

• contamination of millions of gallons of water with toxic chemicals;
• toxic pollution of the air;
• earthquakes in some places where contaminated wastewater is injected underground; and
• a serious contribution to climate change, due to extensive leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

How can they do this? Why don’t they have to clean up their toxic discharges?

The short answer is, under the guidance of then-Vice President Cheney, Congress enacted the “Halliburton loophole” giving the fracking industry special exemptions from our nation’s basic environmental protection laws. Fracking companies don’t have to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, or Clean Water Act. They have a pass to pollute.

It’s time to change that — and now there’s a way.

Members of Congress have introduced the “Frack Pack,” four bills that would hold oil and gas companies to the same standards as other industries — and help protect clean air and clean water.

Ask your representative to cosponsor the Frack Pack. Let them know it’s time to ensure that oil and gas industries comply with the most basic standards for healthy people and a healthy environment. Let’s apply the law of the land to the fracking industry.

Also, if you can do, please support our activities here at the Physicians for Social Responsibility.

>>> Sincerely, Barbara Gottlieb, Environment & Health Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility