"On the last business day of the year, the Interior Department rescinded
a 2015 Obama administration rule that would have set new environmental
limitations on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public lands," Chris Mooney reports for The Washington Post.
The Bureau of Land Management regulation would have "tightened standards for well construction and wastewater management, required the disclosure of the chemicals contained in fracking fluids, and probably driven up the cost for many fracking activities," Mooney reports, but it never took effect because it was stalled in court. A Wyoming district court had said the regulation exceeded the Interior's authority; a spokesperson for the Interior said that rescinding the rule takes care of the legal question and will save the industry money. The spokesperson said that existing laws ensure that fracking operations will be adequately regulated.
Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute applauded the move, saying the regulation would have hurt economic growth in states such as New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Mike Freeman of EarthJustice, which defended the regulation in court, said that it was a "reasonable and long overdue update" of regulations that were adopted long before horizontal hydraulic fracking became common.
The Bureau of Land Management regulation would have "tightened standards for well construction and wastewater management, required the disclosure of the chemicals contained in fracking fluids, and probably driven up the cost for many fracking activities," Mooney reports, but it never took effect because it was stalled in court. A Wyoming district court had said the regulation exceeded the Interior's authority; a spokesperson for the Interior said that rescinding the rule takes care of the legal question and will save the industry money. The spokesperson said that existing laws ensure that fracking operations will be adequately regulated.
Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute applauded the move, saying the regulation would have hurt economic growth in states such as New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Mike Freeman of EarthJustice, which defended the regulation in court, said that it was a "reasonable and long overdue update" of regulations that were adopted long before horizontal hydraulic fracking became common.
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