Alan Lowenthal: “This is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill…”

“This is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. Mr. Speaker, transparency and public disclosure are critical ingredients to successful public policy and, I would dare say so, to successful democracy. My amendment would provide just that-- transparency and public disclosure of the hydraulic fracturing operations that are now prolific in so many States. Right now, our communities do not have access to reliable or complete information about fracking operations. Colleagues, our communities have a right to know. If the public has a right to know what ingredients are in their food, don't our communities have a right to know what chemicals the oil and gas industry is going to pump past their drinking water? If the public has a right to know where Superfund pollution sites are, don't our communities have a right to know where the oil and gas industry is going to store these millions of gallons of unknown chemicals and contaminated slurry? If the public has a right to know about major land-use changes, don't our communities have a right to know when the oil and gas industry is going to start a fracking operation next-door--with its accompanying air emissions? its truck traffic? its noise? and its derricks? I would hope that encouraging transparency and public disclosure would be a bipartisan issue.…”