http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35627-meet-the-shadow-lobbyists-protecting-fracking-from-regulation-the-iogcc
[links in on-line article]
The Shadow Lobbyists Protecting Fracking From Regulation: The IOGCC
Saturday, 16 April 2016 00:00
By Jesse Coleman, Greenpeace | Report
The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) has an enviable
position.
As a self-proclaimed "government agency," they pay no taxes, register no
lobbyists, and freely converse with elected officials and government
regulators. The Oklahoma government pays for their building, which is on
the Governor's mansion property. Yet they also take major contributions
from the fracking industry. When asked for information under Freedom of
Information rules, they claim not to be an agency. It is truly the best
of all worlds: industry funding, government position of authority, and
no oversight.
And what has IOGCC done with their sweet spot?
As a deep investigative piece by Lisa Song of Inside Climate News has
revealed, this unique group has played a quiet but crucial role in
accomplishing the agenda of the oil and gas industry, especially in
regards to fracking.
IOGCC and the "Halliburton" Loophole
The first thing to know about this group is that it is a state compact,
a quasi-government agency usually created to allow states to share
information. Drivers licenses, for instance, are governed by state
compacts. However, IOGCC regularly transgresses the usual role of a
state compact. Instead of innocuous information sharing, IOGCC has been
a key cog in the lobbying machine of the oil and gas industry. And this
is not new. As Song writes:
"The group has worked behind the scenes for decades to prevent
federal regulation so stridently that in 1978, the Justice Department
argued it should be disbanded because it had evolved into an advocacy
organization."
Yet they were not disbanded. In fact, they went on to help create and
lobby for the "Halliburton Loophole," which exempted fracking from the
Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005. This exemption made fracking much more
profitable than it would have otherwise been, in large part creating the
under-regulated shale drilling and fracking boom plaguing communities
all over the country.
As new research revealed by Desmog and Greenpeace reveals, IOGCC started
working on the exemption in 1999, when they passed an internal
resolution that would later make it into the 2005 legislation exempting
fracking. When the exemption passed as part of the Environmental
Protection Act of 2005, IOGCC bragged about their integral role in
newsletters.
Writing Legislation With Lobbyists
The IOGCC is made up of appointees from the 30 oil and gas producing
states. The Governors of these states select two or more people for
IOGCC. These people are usually the top oil and gas regulator from each
state.
IOGCC portrays itself as a group of state regulators trading best
practices. In reality however, only one-third of IOGCC's membership are
actually regulators. Another one-third are oil and gas lobbyists and
executives.
These lobbyists and regulators meet at least twice a year at conferences
funded by the fracking industry, where they drink and attend fancy
dinners together. They also write legislation together, which the state
regulators take back to their states and pass into law.
For instance, in 2009, IOGCC passed a resolution meant to keep Congress
from overturning the Halliburton Loophole. Within months, ten states had
passed resolutions mirroring the IOGCC's language exactly.
IOGCC Collaboration With Industry Front Groups
In addition to writing state legislation alongside fracking industry
lobbyists and executives, IOGCC also acts as a mechanism to turn state
oil and gas regulators into de facto lobbyists for the oil and gas
industry. The group is a conduit between regulators and front groups
like the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), who want regulators and state
governors to support the industry's agenda at a federal level.
In one case that exemplifies the call and response IOGCC can command,
CEA asked IOGCC for state support for their campaign to open the
Atlantic coast to offshore oil drilling.
IOGCC passed the message to its state government members, who quickly
answered the call. Nick Tew, the state geologist and oil and gas
supervisor of the state of Alabama, promised support. Five days after
CEA's request went to IOGCC, the Governor of Alabama sent a letter to
BOEM with the same language, supporting offshore drilling, and naming
Nick Tew as point of contact.
IOGCC itself also submitted a letter, which mimicked CEA's exact language.
CEA underscored IOGCC's importance to pro-oil and gas campaigns calling
IOGCC "critical" to winning its campaign to open up the Atlantic to oil
drilling. The IOGCC's power is two fold, they use the title of
"government agency" when commenting on federal and state regulations,
while offering the oil and gas industry the opportunity to "teach" state
regulators how to talk about oil and gas issues. For example, CEA
provided messaging and media trainings for state regulators in a 2014
annual meeting.
To this day, the IOGCC continues to avoid transparency, even calling the
police on investigative reporter Steve Horn when he sought an interview.
The IOGCC is a big reason why the fracking industry has so successfully
captured the regulatory agencies meant to hold them in check.
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