The Hill News

Companies and industries taking it upon themselves to show leadership and establish environmental guidelines and policies is becoming an increasingly effective means of reducing environmental impact. P&G’s recent update to its Supplier Environmental Sustainability Scorecard provides the latest example of this growing trend of “private regulation.” 

While private regulation is important for consumer brands, might this model be applicable to other industries as well? The oil and gas industry â€" with its global reach, pervasive environmental footprint from extraction to fuel consumption and inextricable role in propelling our fossil fuel economy â€" is in particular need of this kind of leadership.

There are no shortage of views about, even clamors for, how the oil and gas industry should be regulated, most recently embodied by the call to end oil industry subsidies. And, there are also many cries for the industry to self-regulate â€" including offshore d! rilling, overall extraction and spill safety, renewable fuels commitments, etc. But perhaps none has received more recent attention than hydraulic fracking â€" a way to free previously inaccessible natural gas by injecting pressurized fluids into shale rock formations to crack the rock, liberating the gas for extraction.

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