Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas House Bill HCR67 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	81R14686 CBE-D
2	2	By: Farabee, Gonzalez Toureilles H.C.R. No. 67
3	3	Substitute the following for H.C.R. No. 67:
4	4	By: Craddick C.S.H.C.R. No. 67
5	5
6	6
7	7	HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
8	8	WHEREAS, The oil industry in Texas dates back to the late 19th
9	9	century, and the natural gas industry has been a significant part of
10	10	the state's economy since the middle of the 20th century; today,
11	11	Texas is the top combined oil and gas producer in the country;
12	12	during Fiscal Year 2008, Texas producers employed more than 200,000
13	13	people and paid more than $5 billion in taxes and fees to the
14	14	state's general revenue fund; and
15	15	WHEREAS, The regulation of oil and gas exploration and
16	16	production activities has traditionally been within the purview of
17	17	the states; the Texas Legislature passed its first regulatory
18	18	statute for oil in 1899, and the industries have since been
19	19	regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas in coordination with
20	20	the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC); and
21	21	WHEREAS, In recent years, however, the Congress has
22	22	considered legislation to augment the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act
23	23	(SDWA) and grant authority to the federal government to regulate
24	24	oil and gas drilling and production operations; in particular,
25	25	lawmakers have focused on a natural gas drilling technique called
26	26	hydraulic fracturing, which is used to extract natural gas from
27	27	deep rock much faster than would otherwise be possible; implemented
28	28	in the late 1940s, the technology has become a standard method for
29	29	improving efficiency; and
30	30	WHEREAS, Hydraulic fracturing is not covered by the SDWA, and
31	31	the Congress clarified this in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which
32	32	specifically exempts the technology from regulation under the SDWA
33	33	and preserves the state regulatory system; hydraulic fracturing has
34	34	been regulated by states for more than 50 years, and in 2002 the
35	35	IOGCC surveyed oil and gas producing states and found that there
36	36	were no known cases of groundwater contamination associated with
37	37	hydraulic fracturing; and
38	38	WHEREAS, Domestic energy development is vital to the energy
39	39	security of the United States, and the application of hydraulic
40	40	fracturing techniques is estimated to have added more than 7
41	41	billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to
42	42	the nation's energy needs; hydraulic fracturing in the Barnett
43	43	Shale of Texas alone has contributed to the production of more than
44	44	four trillion cubic feet of natural gas; and
45	45	WHEREAS, The current approach to regulating hydraulic
46	46	fracturing has effectively protected groundwater and drinking
47	47	water sources from impacts related to oil and gas exploration and
48	48	production activities; more restrictive regulation, which may not
49	49	increase the protection of underground drinking water, could harm
50	50	the supply of oil and natural gas at a time when the country
51	51	requires more domestic energy production than ever before; now,
52	52	therefore, be it
53	53	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
54	54	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to maintain
55	55	state regulatory coverage of hydraulic fracturing; and, be it
56	56	further
57	57	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
58	58	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, the
59	59	speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
60	60	senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
61	61	Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this
62	62	resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
63	63	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.