FracFocus Trade Secrets in California

Summary: Trade secrets in FracFocus, an instrument of transparency, explicitly conceal the identity of chemicals. This masking has long been controversial. California is unique among states in that it substantially restricted trade secrets in state disclosures by 2015 (as result of Senate Bill 4 of 2013). About that time, trade secrets in FracFocus data dropped to almost zero. Because of that, Open-FF found only 363 trade secrets in California records. Only 13.0% of published disclosures included trade secrets, making the state rank lowest, by far. Furthermore, fracking disclosures only extend into 2021, apparently from the cessation of new fracking permits by governor’s orders. Below, we summarize the broad patterns of trade secret use in California since 2014. For other states, we illustrate patterns of trade secret use, but such patterns are not significant in California. This post is part of a series reporting on “holes” in FracFocus.¹

FracFocus is a public online database that provides information about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) across the United States. While intended to promote transparency, a significant portion of the disclosed chemical information is often withheld as “trade secrets.” This practice has been the subject of debate of how to balance industry’s need to protect proprietary formulas with the public’s right to know about substances injected underground.

However, unlike other US states, California’s record of trade secret use is quite meager. This is the result of the passage of Senate Bill 4 of 2013 which instigated a number of specific actions required of the fracking industry, including enhanced disclosure of chemicals used. While the use of trade secrets was permitted under very specific circumstances, the upshot was that trade secrets in disclosures, both to the state and to FracFocus, virtually disappeared by the middle of 2014. Furthermore, the governor’s 2021 order to cease the permitting of new fracking operations led to the complete cessation of disclosures soon after.

Broad Patterns in California

Quantity of chemicals masked as trade secrets:

742,000 pounds

Frequency of Claims: How common are trade secret claims in California?

Across all valid California chemical records, 1.6% are marked as trade secrets. Trade secret claims appear in 13.0 % of all disclosures.

And the breakdown of the frequency of trade secrets within California disclosures is: 

It is worth comparing this graph to FracFocus as a whole to grasp how different California’s trade secret record is:

Compared to Other States: How does the trade secret use in California compare to other fracking states? Substantially different.

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Title image credit: Becky Mansfield (modified by author)

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1. Map images ©OpenStreetMap; Disclosure tables screenshot from FracFocus PDFs. ↩︎