Trade secrets and fracking on federal lands

Newsweek gets into the issue of disclosure of the components of fracking fluids, with some new regs appearing on Friday, March 20:

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The rules only sightly modify companies' practice of withholding chemical identities under the premise that they are proprietary information. The new rules will compel companies to go through more effort to claim chemical mixtures as trade secrets, by requiring affidavits for any request for exemption from disclosure. Study after study has highlighted the lack of toxicity information available on fracking fluid. The toxicity of fracking fluid chemicals is obscured in some cases because the exact composition of the fluid and the chemicals used are protected as trade secrets, and therefore not reported by the company that makes them.

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The Federal rule does not apply to fracking on non-federal lands.