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Oil & Gas Accountability Project

Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project serves drilling impacted communities around the country.

One way we do so is by working to reform government policies at the federal, state and local levels.

Federal reforms

Closing gaps in federal environmental oversight, like the Halliburton loophole in Clean Water Act, or the drilling exemption in the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), are what we work towards on the federal level.

Drill rigs close to homes, like this one in Washington, PA, demonstrate the need
for strong state-level landowner protections. Photo: Nadia Steinzor

The FRAC Act and the BREATHE Act are two of our highest federal priorities.

State reforms

We work at the state level on many issues. That's because, thanks to federal drilling loopholes, the majority of drilling regulation occurs at the state level.

Among our state reform priorities:

• improving landowner protections -- as we have done in Colorado and New Mexico,
• strengthening environmental protections -- as we have done with the "pitless" rule in New Mexico,
• strengthening public health oversight -- as we did in Texas (with the town of DISH and Wilma Subra) by prodding the state environmental agency (TCEQ) into quicker reactions to drilling air pollution complaints.

At all levels we work to provide better enforcement of existing drilling oversight. We also provide model regulations to state and local jurisdictions to provide citizens and regulators a template for better oversight.

For more information:

• Earthblog: Oil & Gas Accountability Project Director Gwen Lachelt; Marcellus Organizer Nadia Steinzor; Senior Staff Attorney Bruce Baizel
• Earthworks: Loopholes for Polluters. Fact sheet.
• Hydraulic fracturing and the FRAC Act: Frequently Asked Questions. Joint fact sheet.