Local fracking questions may not be answered until August

By: M. Dean Smith
The Bureau of Land Management plans to sell almost 43,000 acres of the Talladega National Forest as 10-year leases for natural gas drilling on June 14. Local environmental groups which protest the sale are gaining support with rallies in Heflin and Talladega to oppose unsafe methods of drilling. Residents near the potential lease sites fear negative environmental impacts similar to fracking operations in Texas and Pennsylvania.

While a resolution in Montgomery to oppose the leases failed to pass through Congress before the end of the regular session, a petition filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center says the BLM will neglect several environmental and reform standards "until new rules, regulations, and studies governing hydrofracking have been issued." The BLM has until August 13 to decide validity of the protest.

Senate Joint Resolution 107 was "dead in the House" according to congressional staffers over the phone early Monday. The resolution was introduced by Sen. Gerald Dial and passed the Senate in the 9 o'clock hour of May 16--the official last day of the 2012 Regular Session--but stalled in the House of Representatives by the end of day--and ultimately the Regular Session. Without adoption from both sides of Congress and Governor Robert Bentley, the resolution does not establish a legislative agreement of Alabama government to oppose the leases.

With a sale date looming less than a month away, the petition filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center remains the only legal document representing a growing number of local residents opposed to the federal leases. The June 14 sale of parcels within the Talladega National Forest for natural gas drilling will be held at the Bureau of Land Management office in Springfield, Va. According the the SELC petition, the BLM violates federal laws by ignoring environmental and reform acts.

Calls to the BLM were unsuccessful and only referred questions to the website blm.gov. Davida Carnahan, Public Affairs Officer for the Bureau, had not read the petition but stated that no comments would be released while it is reviewed and a decision may not be available for up to 60 days after the sale. Protested land will be identified as such before bidding at the June 14 sale, and the Bureau "will issue no lease for a protested parcel until the State Director makes a decision on the protest."