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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: Federal Law Lets Oil and Gas Companies Hide Data on Chemicals

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Monday, April 11, 2016   

HELENA, Mont. – Montana has about 4,400 oil wells and 6,700 gas wells – and a >new report says companies are hiding basic data on the chemicals they use – under the guise of confidentiality – and it's completely legal.

The report, by the nonprofit advocacy group the Partnership for Policy Integrity, says EPA records show that the agency often expresses concern about the health effects of certain chemicals used in drilling and fracking, but still allows their manufacture and use and does not make the testing data public in the vast majority of cases.

Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel with the Partnership for Policy Integrity, blames deficiencies in the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.

"The law was passed in 1976 and allows chemicals to be reviewed by EPA with no requirement that there be any health testing on these chemicals before they're manufactured and used commercially," he points out.

The report says companies can claim as confidential the chemicals' name, the expected production volume and how people might be exposed to them, which makes it hard to determine where they are being used.

The EPA says exposure can have toxic effects on the kidneys, liver and brain.

Oil and gas companies say they comply with the law and are within their rights to claim proprietary information as confidential.

Horwitt says current EPA testing fails to take the real risks of fracking into account.

"The agency generally assumes that the chemicals never leak, spill, migrate underground or get into the air,” he states. “And those assumptions fly in the face of information documented about oil and gas drilling operations."

Congress is considering two bills to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act. But Horwitt says neither bill requires public disclosure of data on the chemicals or the health tests.



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