Tagged: Tom Doll

Wyoming's top oil and gas regulator says the
companies involved in a natural gas well blowout in eastern Wyoming
last month won't face any fines.
     Tom Doll, the state's oil and gas supervisor, tells the Casper
Star-Tribune that well owner Chesapeake Energy Corp. and drill rig owner Trinidad Drilling Ltd. won't be
cited for the blowout. The mishap vented up to 2 million cubic feet
of explosive gas and 31,500 gallons of drilling fluid into the air
and around the drill site near Douglas.
     Doll says it appears a pin that is meant to hold a key gasket
tight within the well head was loose. But such mistakes aren't
really addressed in state rules, even though they're costly to the

Members of the U.S. House Energy and Environment Subcommittee slammed the Environmental Protection Agency during a hearing about the agency’s ground water research in the town of Pavillion.

The Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing got off to a late start after “Gasland” filmmaker Josh Fox was arrested for trying to film the proceedings. Fox has spent considerable time in Pavillion documenting water contamination that may be associated with hydraulic fracturing. An ABC News crew was denied entrance to the hearing.

From there, Chairman Republican Congressman Andy Harris charged the EPA with a “remarkable display of arrogance and disregard for the plain facts” concerning fracking practices through “scientific innuendo and regulatory straight-jacketing.”