If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowed to regulate hydraulic fracturing, a single incident anywhere in the country could “shut down the domestic industry,” an oil and gas industry representative said Tuesday.

“The industry that you’re in today is being revolutionized like you’ve never seen before,” said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

Speaking during LOGA’s annual State of the Industry meeting, Briggs credited the industry’s revolution to hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking,” which he said could help make the country less dependent on foreign resources.

More than 1 million wells have been hydraulically fractured, Briggs said, and about 85 percent of all the wells in use were completed using the technology. It involves injecting chemicals, water and sand into the ground under enormous pressure to crack open and prop up the rocks, thereby releasing the oil or natural gas.

Briggs said the EPA is studying the issue and getting “closer and closer” to controlling regulations, which are currently overseen by each state.

If the EPA were to gain control of that process, Briggs said, the country could one day see a repeat of what happened in the aftermath of the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“They could shut the domestic industry down if some company somewhere makes a mistake,” Briggs said, adding that such mistakes are possible.

Wilma Subra, technical adviser to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and an expert on “fracking,” disputed those statements.

The EPA is studying what effects “fracking” has on water supplies, Subra said.

“What will come out of it may be federal guidelines or federal regulations, but it will not shut the industry down,” Subra said.

The EPA already has some oversight over the issue, and should it assume complete authority, it would still delegate much of that responsibility to the states, Subra said.

Briggs also singled out U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry for his Coast Guard Reauthorization bill, which, if passed, would require operators to have standby vessels near their offshore facilities.

The additional costs to the industry would be huge as the legislation would put more than 200 large vessels out in the Gulf each day of the year, Briggs said.

A single company, which Briggs did not name, could face increased costs of $50 million, he said.

With all the challenges the industry is facing, “for one of our own congressmen to put something like this out there is absolutely absurd,” Briggs said.

In response to Briggs’ comments, Landry, R-New Iberia, said he represents everyone in south Louisiana — both the people who own the oil and gas companies and their employees.

“This is a life-saving piece of legislation,” Landry said, adding that it is one that the men and women who work on those platforms have asked for.

Prior to bringing the legislation before the House of Representatives, Landry said, his office reached out to industry officials and to Briggs, whom he said did not respond until after the legislation was presented to the House.

Landry said he has since spoken to Briggs and others in the industry in the hopes of reaching an agreement that would protect lives in a cost-effective manner.

The congressman also disagreed with Briggs’ calculations, which he said do not “accurately reflect the agreements that we’ve made so far.”

“Again, I’m not going to risk the lives of the people that I’m bound to protect simply because Mr. Briggs believes that those lives are not worth a certain dollar figure,” Landry said.

Tuesday’s meeting was the second in a series of regional luncheons.

Briggs also shared the latest updates on the status of U.S. offshore oil drilling, shale gas exploration and development and the effects Louisiana’s legal environment is having on the industry.

The number of rigs in the Gulf has fallen from about 60 before the oil spill to about 40 today, Briggs said.

Meanwhile, the time it takes to get a permit for deepwater drilling has also increased from about 36 days to about 131 days, Briggs said.

Having said that, “the Gulf is still going to be a very viable part of our energy infrastructure for years to come,” Briggs said.

Currently, the United States produces 9.6 million barrels of oil per day, putting it behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia, and consumes about 19 million barrels per day, which represents about 22 percent of the world’s consumption, according to figures in Briggs’ presentation.

Briggs said some estimates have the United States surpassing Russia for the top-producing spot by 2020. The country could also see its dependence on foreign oil fall from 49 percent in 2010 to 36 percent by 2035, Briggs said.

While the average price for a barrel of oil hovers around $100, the price of natural gas is much lower — about $2.45 per 1,000 cubic feet, Briggs said.

Low natural gas prices have led to declining natural gas rig numbers from 82 percent of the total number of rigs drilling in the United States in 2008 to 42 percent today, Briggs said.

Still, the Haynesville Shale site, located partially in northwest Louisiana, remains the largest in the country and the fourth largest in the world, Briggs said.

Since October 2008, about 1,700 wells have been drilled in the Haynesville site, he said.

The Haynesville site has generated tens of thousands of jobs and is expected to have an estimated impact of $14 billion this year alone, Briggs said.

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, which cuts through the center of Louisiana, has shown lots of promise and will likely help to bring balance as companies pull out of Haynesville, Briggs said.

Briggs also spoke at length about “legacy lawsuits,” which allow landowners to sue oil companies for the environmental messes left behind on their land from old oil fields that were drilled by major oil companies with technology that has since been discarded.

Briggs said the lawsuits allow the landowner to make claims against anyone who has had any contact with the oil lease, from those who drilled the land to those who have assumed the oil leases years later.

More than 800 of LOGA’s 1,400 members are involved in legacy lawsuits, Briggs said.

“It’s pure unadulterated extortion,” Briggs said, adding that he believes these lawsuits discourage drilling in the state.