Mark Pocan: “Thank you, Mr. Ellison. It is not just members of the Progressive Caucus, Democrats, or concerned citizens who live near…”

“Thank you, Mr. Ellison. It is not just members of the Progressive Caucus, Democrats, or concerned citizens who live near these wells who are talking about this. There actually was a recent investigation that was done by The Weather Channel, the Center for Public Integrity, and InsideClimate News that found numerous violations on current sites. At one, they found, for example, that the State of Texas, that they know ``almost nothing'' about the pollution that one of these shale drilling wells causes. They said that thousands of Texas oil and gas facilities are allowed to self-audit their emissions, meaning they don't have to report them to the State. They go on to talk about pollution complaints. They also said in another study in the U.K. and Pennsylvania that they looked at multiple data sets of wells in Pennsylvania to determine the rate of well failures, and they found that one-third of a data set of 3,500 wells were reported for environmental violations between 2008 and 2011. So, while we have special exemptions in clean water and in clean air laws for this process, we are finding severe violations by groups like The Weather Channel--hardly someone who is biased--who actually look at these facilities.…”