Ramifications? Pretty draconian IMO. How to play this?
The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to stop fracking as soon as January, when the state regulators must write new rules for facture treatment based on EPA guidance document that is under review by the Office of Management and Budget, according to an article in the Bismark Tribune citing Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources. The document will tell states how to comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and write permits under the act?s underground injection control Class II well program when diesel fuels are used in fracking fluids. In January, the EPA will release the guidance document to states. Then, his department will write a new section of state rules to comply with the document. Those are referred to the State Industrial Commission for adoption, but first are opened for public hearing. By January 2013, the state would be able to complete its rulemaking, which the EPA must first publish in the Federal Register, possibly in the first quarter of that year, before the state could begin permitting hydraulic fracturing. In the meantime, Helms said, he believes there will be a moratorium on fracking because of the history of many-months moratoriums in Alabama, when the EPA, because of an environmental lawsuit, revoked Alabama?s underground injection program until the state wrote new rules specific to fracking under Class II well standards.
from CSFB this morning
EDIT: I tend to think that traditional producers would benefit (e.g., ECA)
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