Illinois General Assembly Bill To Public: Frack You!
By JoshMogerman in News on May 24, 2014 8:15PM
Fracking. Like it, hate it, concerned or confident in the technology, you probably have thoughts on how it should (or shouldn’t) be done in Illinois. Too bad the Illinois General Assembly doesn’t want to hear them.
Or, more precisely, John Bradley, a leader in the House and an outspoken fracking proponent from southern Illinois, doesn’t want to hear them. He also doesn’t seem to want the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to hear your thoughts on fracking (or any of the record 35,000 comments submitted to the department as it has undertaken the rulemaking process that would govern the controversial oil and gas extraction technique in this state).
Bradley introduced amendments to Illinois’ fracking laws late Friday afternoon that would end the rulemaking process; scuttle some of the public protections that had previously been in the state’s fracking laws; cut public and IDNR technical expertise out of the deliberative process; and basically flip the bird to members of the public who had sent along feedback on the state laws.
Why (most reasonable folks would ask)?
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been charged with pulling together rules to implement horizontal hydraulic fracturing from legislation passed last year in Springfield and has come under pressure from industry to finish that process faster.The deadline is not until November, but the oil and gas industry fears that if the process drags on, drillers will leave the state.
While the new rules outlined in Bradley’s bill seem heavily tipped towards the oil and gas industry’s interests, they are rejecting the bill too because it includes a moratorium on fracking in Northern Illinois. Nevermind that nobody is looking to frack up here since there are limited, if any, oil and gas resources to drill for…the industry just doesn’t like the precedent.
Enviros were quick to slam the bill too, with NRDC’s Midwest Director Henry Henderson emphatically calling the bill out:
"Even for Illinois politics, this is an astounding betrayal of the public trust and an example of everything wrong with Springfield. It’s a giveaway to oil and gas interests and a sellout of the citizens of the state, delivered at the end of the day on a Friday before a holiday weekend."
Unsurprisingly, the IDNR is not keen to be cut out of their own rulemaking process and chafe at the industry’s rhetoric on delay:
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Marc Miller told the [Chicago] Tribune in a recent interview that the agency received 35,000 comments on its first draft of the rules, all of which it must respond to under the law.“This isn’t possum trapping here,” Miller said. “This is hydraulic fracturing. We did an unprecedented amount of work in front of going for public comment and going out for public hearings. This is a controversial topic and we anticipated this would involved a lot of public participation.”
The trend against public participation (or even awareness) continues with a hearing on the bill set for Monday—yes, Memorial Day. Apparently, in the capitol it is patriotic to throw public participation in our democracy under the bus.
Update: On Monday (yes...Memorial Day), the bill passed committee and could be voted on in the House and Senate mid-week.
Second Update: On Wednesday, downstate Representative David Reis (R-Olney) held a press conference conceding the bill had died after backers were unable to garner enough votes. The Trib notes oil & Gas industry representatives continue to fret that drillers will leave the state if they are not allowed to drill soon. At press time, the oil and gas deposits remained in Illinois...