This is from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute. There is a federal law that prohibits the federal government from requiring the disclosure of the composition of chemicals used in fracking. But there are several states that have transparency laws for fracking chemicals, there’s, I believe, 26.
But this study analyzed 16 of them and found that in those states, water quality is higher. Particularly, the measure they used was salt concentration. And in states that have laws on the books or regulations on the books requiring transparency, salt concentration was down by up to nearly 18%.
Another thing that the study found was that there was correlation between improved water quality and Google searches for hydraulic fracturing, essentially for people looking to get the facts on the details of the practice, as well as a healthier, more robust sort of local news ecosystem and more environmental non-governmental organizations into the state.
I don’t have in front of me which states, if any, have comparable bills or laws in the works to join the ranks of the states that require disclosure but I can imagine that this is going to be a major incentive, a major sort of bit of evidence that proponents of those laws can point to illustrate that it’s more environmentally friendly to require these disclosures.