KANSAS TRIES A SNEAKY REPEAL OF FRACKING REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Kansas House Bill Number 2526, introduced by the Committee on Energy and Utilities,  is a piece of legislative art.  On the face it looks like it merely gives the Kansas Corporations Commissions additional authority to "promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the supervision and disclosure of any well on which a hydraulic fracturing treatment is performed."

That was Section One of the bill.  Section Two is only one sentence long, and threatens to dismantle all the regulatory protocol which the Corporations Commissions has written, or may in the future write.  Section Two says " K.S.A. 55-152 is hereby repealed."  

The way this bill is drafted reminds of the peanut under the shell game.  Now you see it now you don't.  K.S.A. 55-152 is important because it gives local groundwater districts the power to develop more stringent controls than the state requires.  It says, in pertinent part:  

Any such rules and regulations relating to wells providing cathodic protection to prevent corrosion to lines shall not preempt existing standards and policies adopted by the board of directors of a groundwater management district if such standards and policies provide protection of fresh water to a degree equal to or Any such rules and regulations relating to wells providing cathodic protection to prevent corrosion to lines shall not preempt existing standards and policies adopted by the board of directors of a groundwater management district if such standards and policies provide protection of fresh water to a degree equal to or greater than that provided by such rules and regulations. greater than that provided by such rules and regulations.

 Lacking statutory authority to promulgate rules protecting the environment will have the effect of legislative repeals of the existing rules.  This sets Kansas on a course of certain environmental catastrophe.  Repealing K.S.A. 55-152  is a very bad idea.

No doubt in my mind exists that the whole committee did not unanimously agree to this bill.  This is a problem with the Kansas Legislature where legislators don't want to own their bills. Instead they take cover from the committee of origin. 

The Chair of the Committee on Energy and Utilities is Dodge City Republican Representative Carl Holmes.  The Vice Chair is Fredonia Republican Forrest Knox.  The Ranking Member is Topeka Democrat Annie Kuether.  The members of the committee are Ulysses Republican Steve Alford, Leawood Republican Rob Bruchman, Topeka Republican Mike Burgess, Wichita Democrat Nile Dillmore, Wichita Democrat Gail Finney, Kansas City Democrat Stan Frownfelter, Wichita Republican Phil Hermanson, Dighton Republican Don Hineman, Garden City Republican Reynaldo Mesa, Parsons Republican Richard Proehl, Inman Republican Don Schroeder, Pretty Prairie Republican Joe Seiwert, Mission Democrat Mike Slattery, Lawrence Republican Tom Sloan, Overland Park Republican Greg Smith, and Clay Center Republican Vern Swanson.

 Whether or not your Representative is on the Committee on Energy and Utilities, let your Representative know that you oppose repeal of K.S.A. 55-152.