The OIl and Gas Industry is Mindful. Yeah, right.

I picked this up from the API press clippings.  Like we don't have to watch every move they make.  I love that the CEO of American Petroleum is being "mindful."  The minute someone uses that word, I get hives.  I'm not at all convinced that fracking is going to end up with the bad rep it now has.  I think that we will figure out a way to extract gas from shale safely, but I am certain that the oil and gas industry is mindful--of profits and expansion at any cost.  This is one instance where we need the feds to babysit.

The US Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management improved their proposed hydraulic fracturing regulations before issuing them on May 4, American Petroleum Institute Pres. Jack N. Gerard acknowledged. But the fundamental question of whether they’re actually necessary remains unanswered, he said on May 9.
“Let’s be thoughtful about this. Let’s be mindful of what’s already in place, and if it’s working, why try to duplicate it?” he told reporters during a teleconference. “Right now, energy states are taking action and making sure they have a robust regulatory regime that should be adequate to regulate industry without overlaid federal regulation.”
Many states already aggressively regulate fracing on federal, state, and private land, and others are improving their programs with help from the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, the Groundwater Protection Council, and the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER), Gerard noted. More significantly, producing states process permit applications faster than the year BLM often takes without compromising environmental protection, he added.
“We look at models like North Dakota and see they’re protecting their people, they’re protecting their environment, and they can issue a permit in 14 days,” Gerard said. “The feds should look at that model, instead of trying to overlay an additional layer of regulation that potentially duplicates or conflicts with it.”