The truth about the Texas fracking disclosure rules released by the Texas Railroad Commission

You will not find the truth about the Texas fracking disclosure rules in the press release issued by the Texas Railroad Commission. That’s hyperbole.

The truth is the rules are much improved over the bill that was passed by the Texas Lege so it appears that the TRC considered the comments that were submitted.

Here are the important points:

• The rules are better than New Mexico’s but not as good as Colorado’s, which is why we need federal standards.
• Halliburton won the trade secrets battle so it is not accurate to claim the rules require full disclosure.
• There is no automatic review of trade secret exemptions.
• There is a narrow pathway to make challenges to the trade secrets exemptions if you are a landowner or adjacent landowner and you petition the Texas Attorney General’s office.
• It requires disclosure of maximum concentrations of all MSDS chemicals but not non-MSDS chemicals.
• The information will be available on FracFocus, which is not currently user friendly but upgrades are in progress

It’s not a perfect rule, it’s better than NM but not as good as CO. based on comments we and others made they did strengthen it.