Rather, he said, the central legal question is “whether Congress has delegated to the Department of Interior legal authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing”. “Notably, my article also does not address the separate authority of the BLM to regulate fracturing on federal lands”, she added. “His opinion made very clear when in 2005 Congress specifically removed the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing it did not intend for the BLM to instead have this authority”, he said. The government can appeal the ruling. “It’s a pretty simple proposition and it is indicative of the common sense approach the Obama administration has pursued”.
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Arguments in that case are scheduled later this year in a D.C. federal court.
A federal judge in Wyoming has set aside new regulations for hydraulic fracturing on public lands that were vehemently opposed by oil and gas producers.
The Bureau of Land Management and a coalition of environmental groups say the rules are necessary to protect the environment.
The Interior Department’s fracking rule would have set new standards for disposing wastewater from shale oil and gas drilling, required companies to disclose the chemicals they use, and better ensure their wells are properly built.
Neal Kirby, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said Tuesday he is pleased with Skavdahl’s decision, the AP reports. “The BLM’s effort to do so through the Tracking Rule is in excess of its statutory authority and contrary to law”, Skavdahl wrote.
“This rule undermined the careful and efficient regulation of fracturing that states have put in place, like the rules written by Wyoming”, the Republican lawmaker said. Each of the states, as well as the Utah-based Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray and energy industry groups, filed briefs with Judge Skavdahl arguing for their rights.
“This ruling sends a broad signal about who really does have the jurisdictional authority to regulate this area”, said Ryan Sitton of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees the oil and gas industry in the top producing state. The ruling ordered that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement must analyze the environmental impact of fracking before issuing any more licenses, reported Story Hinkley for The Christian Science Monitor.
The decision follows similar setbacks for other pieces of President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy, including a Supreme Court stay of the Clean Power Plan that forces states to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and legal wrangling over a rule dictating some waters are under USA jurisdiction.
The director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign said in a statement that the organization hopes the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold the Obama administration’s rules.
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About two dozen states, a lot of them GOP-led, and scores of utilities and coal mining companies have sued to stop the rules.
