Sponsors (25)
Treats hydraulic fracturing injections as underground injection under the UIC program and requires public chemical disclosures before and within 30 days after fracturing, with limited trade‑secret protections.
The bill increases transparency and emergency medical access around hydraulic fracturing and closes a regulatory gap, but retains trade‑secret protections and adds compliance costs that may raise energy costs and leave some emergency disclosures and public accountability uneven.
Residents and communities near fracking sites gain public access to non‑proprietary chemical disclosures (posted before and after fracturing), improving local awareness of water/air health risks and enabling community monitoring and environmental research.
Treating medical personnel can obtain the identities of proprietary chemicals immediately during medical emergencies, enabling faster, better‑informed care for exposed patients.
States (or EPA where it has primacy) are given clear authority to treat hydraulic fracturing injections as underground injection, closing a regulatory gap and enabling UIC oversight and enforcement.
Operators face new disclosure and posting requirements (including proprietary chemical lists to regulators), which raises compliance costs that could push up energy prices or reduce industry investment.
The bill preserves trade‑secret protections that prohibit public disclosure of proprietary formulas, so the public may still lack full information about risks from proprietary mixtures despite expanded disclosure of non‑proprietary details.
Emergency medical disclosures and subsequent documentation depend on operator cooperation, confidentiality agreements, and on state/EPA determinations of a 'medical emergency,' creating potential delays, variable access across jurisdictions, and unclear public accountability after exposures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 18, 2025 by Diana DeGette · Last progress November 18, 2025
Treats hydraulic fracturing for oil, gas, and geothermal production as regulated "underground injection" under the Underground Injection Control program and requires companies to disclose the chemicals used in fracturing fluids and proppants. States (or EPA where it has primacy) must collect and publicly post pre‑fracturing and within‑30‑days post‑fracturing chemical lists, including constituent names, CAS numbers, MSDS when available, and anticipated/actual volumes, while preserving protections for proprietary formulas except in medical emergencies where identities must be disclosed to regulators or treating medical personnel.