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SW: →The "Halliburton loophole": fix red links
==The "Halliburton loophole"==
In 2005, at the urging of Vice President [[Dick Cheney]], Congress created the so-called "[[Halliburton loophole]]" to the [[Clean Water Drinking Act]] (CWDA) to prevent the [[U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]] from regulating this process, despite its demonstrated contamination of drinking water. In 2001, Cheney's "energy task force" had touted the benefits of hydrofracking, while redacting references to human health hazards associated with hydrofracking; [[Halliburton]], which was previously led by Cheney, reportedly earns $1.5 billion a year from its energy operations, which relies substantially on its hydrofracking business.<ref>Tom Hamburger and Allen C. Miller, [http://articles.latimes.com/2004/oct/14/nation/na-frac14 "Halliburton's Interests Assisted by the White House"], ''Los Angeles Times'', October 14, 2004.</ref>
According to [[Pro Publica]] reporter Abrahm Lustgarten, the EPA under [[Christine Todd Whitman]]'s tenure as Administrator engaged in secret negotiations with industry, while supposedly addressing drinking water issues related to hydro-fracturing.<ref>See http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/3/fracking_and_the_environment_natural_gas.</ref> In 2004, the EPA undertook a study on the issue and "the EPA, despite its scientific judgment that there was a potential risk to groundwater supplies, which their report clearly says, then went ahead and very surprisingly concluded that there was no risk to groundwater," Lustgarten said in September 2009. "[P]art of my reporting found that throughout that process the EPA was closer than seemed comfortable with the industry. I filed [[FOIA]] requests for some documents and found conversations between [[Halliburton]] employees and the EPA researchers, essentially asking for an agreement from Halliburton in exchange for more lax enforcement. The EPA, in these documents, appeared to offer that and agree to that. And it doesn’t appear, by any means, to have been either a thorough or a very objective study." <ref>Interview with Abrahm Lustgarten, "[http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/3/fracking_and_the_environment_natural_gas Fracking and the Environment: Natural Gas Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Contamination]," ''Democracy Now!'', September 3, 2009.</ref>
