"Companies will not be able to keep trade secrets for hydraulic fracturing ingredients if a proposed Alaska rule is adopted."

"The chemical disclosure rule, part of draft fracking regulations released late last month by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, is similar to other states' orders in every way except one major issue: trade secret exemptions.

In other states that require operators to report what they use in drilling, exemptions allow companies to withhold information they consider proprietary. Environmentalists have derided trade secret allowances as loopholes that allow industry to put unknown toxins in the ground, while operators have defended the exemptions as crucial to having a competitive edge on other drillers."

Ellen M. Gilmer reports for EnergyWire January 3, 2013. [2]