Government Looking At New Rule Regulating Fracking Sand

Platts is reporting:

So, is a proposed federal rule designed to reduce worker exposure to crystalline silica in industrial sands a backdoor assault on the oil and gas industry in general, and hydraulic fracturing in particular?

A blogger for Motley Fool, Rich Duprey, thinks so. “It would seem that when you combine this move with the other efforts of the administration to attack the oil and gas industry, the motto ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ is the guiding principle at work thwarting future growth,” he said in a recent column.

Marc Freedman, the executive director of Labor Law Policy for the US Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule “is going to affect a lot of different industries. Fracking will be significantly affected and to the extent that industry is generating a lot of beneficial outcomes, then that could be at risk too.”  He wouldn’t go so far as to say the government is plotting against the oil and gas industry.

A spokesman for API wouldn’t comment on the assertion the proposed rule is an anti-drilling plot. The head of the National Industrial Sand Association, Mark Ellis, the trade group that represents sand and gravel companies in Washington, didn’t think the Obama administration was conspiring against the industrial sands segment of the industry.

I can't get too shook about this.  Life will go on; posted for archival purposes, not to make any statement one way or the other. If push comes to shove, "we'll" just buy all our ceramics from China, sending more dollars to China instead of Wisconsin and Minnesota.