The US Bureau of Land Management withdrew its proposed hydraulic fracturing regulations and announced that a new draft will be prepared during 2013’s first quarter. BLM is preparing a new version in response to the more than 170,000 comments it received to the original proposal, the US Department of the Interior said on Jan. 18.It's also my understanding the Interior Secretary has tendered his resignation.
Here is one from Ohio.
API President and CEO Jack Gerard welcomed the Bureau of Land Management decision to take proposed federal hydraulic fracturing regulations back to the drawing board.
“API asked the administration to reconsider the rules, and we welcome this move as a positive first step.” said Gerard. “However, the real test will be in the substance of the re-proposal. We hope the administration will recognize the strong oversight provided by existing state and federal regulations and take sufficient time to review the many thoughtful comments provided by the oil and natural gas industry and others. Effective regulation of hydraulic fracturing already exists in the states. Conflicting or duplicative federal requirements would delay development of abundant domestic oil and natural gas and threaten jobs and revenue to the federal treasury, without providing additional environmental protection.”
Acknowledging the states' existing authority of shale energy development, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said “you can't start to talk about a federal role without acknowledging the very strong state role.”
Do I read this right, they are starting the process over?
ReplyDeleteI have to be real careful on this. It's my understanding the BLM is "starting over." The EPA rules are still in "draft" stage or something to that effect.
DeleteThe way I understand it is that BLM rules apply to federal land only (such as the reservation). EPA rules would apply to all land, private or public.
But this has to be great news to companies like KOG which have a significant amount of acreage in the reservation. It will be interesting if we see any validation of that in the market tomorrow.