|
House Bill 3328 |
House Author: Keffer et al. |
|
Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: Fraser et al. |
House Bill 3328 amends the Natural Resources Code to require the Railroad Commission of Texas to adopt rules requiring an operator of an oil or gas well on which a hydraulic fracturing treatment is performed to disclose the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids used in the treatment, in addition to other specified information, by completing, in regard to the well, a form posted on the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry Internet website of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. The rules must require a service company that performs a hydraulic fracturing treatment on a well or a supplier of an additive in a treatment to provide the operator with the information necessary for the operator to comply with the disclosure requirements. House Bill 3328 provides for the protection of trade secrets by allowing an entity that is required to comply with the bill's provisions to withhold and declare certain information as a trade secret and provides for a challenge to a claim of entitlement to trade secret protection, with specified limitations. The bill requires the railroad commission to adopt rules relating to the disclosure of the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids and the protection and challenge of trade secrets in regard to these fluids not later than July 1, 2012.
House Bill 3328 also requires the railroad commission to adopt rules requiring an operator to make available on a publicly accessible website a list of all other chemical ingredients not listed on the previously described form that were intentionally included and used to create the hydraulic fracturing fluid. However, an operator, service company, or supplier is not responsible for disclosing ingredients that occur incidentally or were not purposely added to the treatment fluid, and an operator is not responsible for disclosing ingredients that were not disclosed to the operator by a service company or supplier. The railroad commission is required to adopt the rules relating to ingredients not listed on the form not later than July 1, 2013.