BLM Decision to Rescind Fracking Rule Gains Praise from Industry Groups

摘要

In a move that earned praise from producers, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rescinded a 2015 rule covering hydraulic fracturing on federal land that was challenged in court and never implemented to address the chemical content of fracking fluids. The Department of Interior (DOI) agency found that state efforts to regulate fracking have increased, that the disclosure of chemicals in fracking fluids to agencies or databases such as FracFocus is more prevalent than it was in 2015, and that the cost and regulatory burden to comply with the rule was too great. BLM reviewed comments in its 7/25/17 proposed rule to rescind the regulation, concluding that the 2015 rule is a duplicative regulation that should be repealed, it said in a 12/28/17 decision.