EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act

Bill: 113-hr-2850
Sponsor: Rep. Smith, Lamar [R-TX-21]
Introduced: 2013-07-30 in the House
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
Government studies and investigations
Hydrology and hydrography
Oil and gas
Water quality

Summary:
action_date: 2013-07-30
text: 
EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conducting the study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources, with respect to which a request for information was issued in November 2012, to:
 
 
prior to issuance and dissemination of any final or interim report summarizing EPA research on such relationship, consider such reports to be Highly Influential Scientific Assessments requiring peer review in accordance with specified EPA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy documents;
 
require the reports to meet the standards and procedures for the dissemination of influential scientific, financial, or statistical information set forth in the EPA's 
Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency
, developed in response to guidelines issued by OMB under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001; and
 
ensure that identification of the possible impacts included in such reports be accompanied by objective estimates of the probability, uncertainty, and consequence of each identified impact, taking into account the risk management practices of states and industry, and that estimates or descriptions of probability, uncertainty, and consequence are as quantitative as possible given the validity, accuracy, precision, and other quality attributes of the underlying data and analyses, but no more quantitative than the data and analyses can support.
 

action_date: 2013-10-23
text: 
EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conducting the study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources, with respect to which a request for information was issued in November 2012, to:
 
 
prior to issuance and dissemination of any final or interim report summarizing EPA research on such relationship, consider such reports to be Highly Influential Scientific Assessments requiring peer review in accordance with specified EPA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy documents;
 
require the reports to meet the standards and procedures for the dissemination of influential scientific, financial, or statistical information set forth in the EPA's 
Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency
, developed in response to guidelines issued by OMB under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001; and
 
ensure that identification of the possible impacts included in such reports be accompanied by objective estimates of the probability, uncertainty, and consequence of each identified impact, taking into account the risk management practices of states and industry, and that estimates or descriptions of probability, uncertainty, and consequence are as quantitative as possible given the validity, accuracy, precision, and other quality attributes of the underlying data and analyses, but no more quantitative than the data and analyses can support.
 
 
Requires public release of the final report by September 30, 2016.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2013-10-23
text: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 179.
action_date: 2013-10-23
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. H. Rept. 113-252.
action_date: 2013-10-23
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. H. Rept. 113-252.
action_date: 2013-08-01
text: Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote.
action_date: 2013-08-01
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2013-07-30
text: Referred to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
action_date: 2013-07-30
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2013-07-30
text: Introduced in House