Last week, two new reports on hydraulic fracturing were released by the Obama Administration – and the results reinforce our industry's messaging. Not only is hydraulic fracturing best regulated at the state-level, but also this technology can be credited with creating America's energy renaissance.

Let's take a quick look at the findings:

State Regulation of HF.  The first report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) states that "The regulatory structure for addressing local environmental concerns, especially around land and water use, exists primarily at the state and local level."  IPAA's communications and research arm, Energy in Depth (EID), points out, this report complements a long list of experts and regulators who understand states are best equipped to regulate shale development, including former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson who said"States are stepping up and doing a good job." 

Long, impressive track-record of HF.  The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has made almost 70 years of hydraulic fracturing data available to the public in its recently released report. Highlighting the long history of fracking in United States, the report covers nearly 1.8 million HF treatment records from 1947 through 2010 at 986,000 oil and natural gas wells, putting to rest anti-fracking activists' claims that hydraulic fracturing is a "relatively new" process. It highlights the fact that the combination of hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling, as well as innovations in HF fluids, are largely responsible for our energy renaissance.  

For more detailed information, you can view Energy in Depth's full evaluation of the White House Economic Advisers report here and the USGS report here.