“It would be good to see the subcommittee make recognition of the strong state regulatory system,” said Erik Milito, upstream director at the American Petroleum Institute.

Come off it. The question for Milito, et al. is why they eliminated federal oversight of state hydrofracking regulation, which still existed. But the answer is simple: it’s easier to put things over on state regulators when they can’t defer to a higher authority. Not to mention how the current fiscal situation is decimating state regulatory bodies.

New York State sued five federal agencies in Federal Court, claiming that plans for “natural gas hydrofracking” in the Delaware River Basin could ruin pristine waters that supply more than 9 million New Yorkers with drinking water.
…
New York’s claims that the Delaware River Basin Commission is a federal agency – an assertion the Army Corps of Engineers denies. [and so] New York demands an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.

I’d say NY is on the right track (but I’m not an attorney). If the Delaware Basin covers more than one state (as I believe it does), then it would seem to have to exist under federal auspices. And no doubt they are getting federal funds, one way or the other.

What’s really good, in  addition to examining environmental effects that include both water and air, an EIS opens up things in requiring consideration of alternatives, such as public transportation and other approaches that obviate the need for basin gas in the first place.

Gary Luquette, president of North America exploration and production for Chevron, said it was time for industry to stop dragging its feet on disclosure.

“We have used this ‘intellectual property’ issue as a convenient excuse to move slow,” Luquette told a federal panel set up by the Obama administration to offer recommendations on improving the safety of hydraulic fracturing.

Refreshing honesty. Clearly, they are dragging their feet because they can, and because their attorneys make money by so doing, not because the trade secret argument has any relevancy. Now what does Luquette think about adding tracers to the hydrofracking solutions?

…. depressed natural gas prices have been blamed for stalling wind, solar PV and solar hot water projects that compete directly with the resource. While a cleaner-burning form of energy like natural gas is much better than burning coal, focusing too heavily on the resource may delay aggressive development of renewable energy.

Indeed. Not to mention transitioning away from the automobile to a public transportation (and walking/biking) economy.