Campopiano / 1 Senator Cook

S.B._____

A BILL
To ban fracking and all similar activities used to extract coal, methane gas, and oil in the United States of America.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Ban Extraction of Fossil Fuels Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) The oil and gas industry is still expanding production across the country due to new technology making it possible
and easier to extract oil and coal from previously inaccessible sites.
2) A 50 percent drop in crude oil in the past year has made diesel prices lower, thus encouraging mines and other
users of fossil fuels to slow down adding solar and wind projects.
3) Discovering and using cleaner energy is one of the quickest solutions to the issue of global warming.
4) Methane gas released from fracking traps 84 percent more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
5) Fracking is currently exempt from the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource
Conservation Recovery Act.
6) Man-made earthquakes that occurred near drilling sites were found to be caused by fracking.
7) Living within half a mile of fracking and other gas-drilling operations have increased peoples health problems,
including cancer.
8) Methane linked to gas-drilling operations has been found in drinking water wells of nearby areas.
9) 25 percent of fracking chemicals has been found to cause cancer.
10) In Pennsylvania, more than 3,000 gas fracking wells and permitted well sites are located within two miles of 320
day care centers, 67 schools and nine hospitals.
11) State and federal regulators have a poor track record of protecting the public from the impacts of fracking.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A)The Ban Extraction of Fossil Fuels Act of 2015 shall require companies to cease operations regarding fracking and
all other similar activities used to extract coal, methane gas, and oil in the United States of America. Similar activities
include drilling rigs used to extract oil, and coal mining operations. Each company that involves themselves in these
activities shall terminate their operations by 2025.
B) The Environmental Protection Agency will be responsible for enforcing this law upon mining and drilling
companies. A team of Environmental Protection Agency employees will be hired to oversee drilling and mining
companies to make sure they have ended their mining and fracking operations. Operations will be funded with ten
million dollars annually through money extracted from the estimated 37 billion dollars oil companies receive from
government oil subsidies each year to fund EPA teams and EPA approved eco-friendly energy sources.
C) This bill shall be enacted on January 1, 2016. Any drilling or mining site involved with fracking or the extraction
of fossil fuels shall be terminated upon discovery after 2025 by the Environmental Protection Agency. The company
responsible for the drilling or mining site shall be fined twenty percent of their annual earnings. This money shall be
sent directly to the Environmental Protection Agency, which will then be put towards research facilities for green
energy research.