Fracking Fight Moves to Montana Legislature

Advancing in the Montana legislature…a bill to make oil and gas developers justify and get state approval in order to keep secret the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

Under the bill, companies have to submit their requests for confidentiality and a $25 feet to the Montana Oil and Gas Conservation Board.  It would not be allowed to release chemical information considered confidential unless ordered by a court.

The bill is only a vote away from being passed in the Montana legislature. It was filed after an environmental group and landowners filed suit in January over existing laws that let the companies conceal the ingredients of the chemicals used in fracking.

 

estimated that companies would make 30 requests for trade secrets the first year and about 25 requests per year after that.