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 Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a controversial technique
that involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into a well to
extract oil or gas. The new federal rules include beefed-up measures
to protect ground water, one of the main health and safety concerns
arising from the drilling process.
Within minutes of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposal being
released, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA)
and Western Energy Alliance filed a lawsuit in a federal court in
Wyoming on grounds that the rulemaking was based on "unsubstantiated
concerns" over safety.
The rules also require energy companies to reinforce boreholes to
prevent water leakage, and to reveal chemical ingredients that are
injected into the ground under high pressure to extract crude oil
and gas.
Although only about 10 percent of fracking occurs on federal lands,
the Obama administration is hoping the rules will become a model for
industry standards, especially in states that so far lack fracking
rules.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the standards were a
long-overdue update to U.S. rules for drilling on federal lands,
outmoded since the widespread emergence of horizontal drilling in
the past 10 years. She said they were "good for the public and good
for industry."
The administration has characterized the BLM action as a step
towards balancing public health and safety concerns with regulatory
certainty that should allow energy companies to proceed with
responsible production.
Industry groups and Republicans warned the rules would slow down the
U.S. "energy renaissance."
The new standards require companies to submit detailed information
about every proposed operation, including the location of faults and
fractures, the depths of all usable water and the depth of estimated
volume of fluid to be used.
Companies would disclose the components of the fracking fluids they
use on an industry-run website called FracFocus.
“A duplicative layer of new federal regulation is unnecessary," said
Eric Milito, a director at industry lobby group the American
Petroleum Institute. "We urge the BLM to work carefully with the
states to minimize costs and delays created by the new rules to
ensure that public lands can still be a source of job creation and
economic growth."
Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso called the BLM rules "a
solution looking for a problem" since his and other western states
already have regulations.
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'TOOTHLESS'
Madeleine Foot, a policy analyst at The League of Conservation
Voters, praised some safety requirements in the rules, but said
telling companies to use the industry-run website FracFocus failed
to increase transparency about fracking practices.
Other environmentalists contended the rules failed to match
administration rhetoric on combating the high-carbon industries that
contribute to carbon change.
"Today's toothless fracking rules are just the latest sign that 'one
step forward, two steps back' is beginning to cement as President
Obama's historical legacy on climate change," said Karthik
Ganapathy, a spokesman for 350.org, an environmental activist
network.
Both 350.org and the Sierra Club, one of the country's largest green
groups, have argued for the government to eliminate fracking on
federal lands.
Jewell said the BLM had received comments for the standards from
over 1.5 million groups and individuals. The rules have been in the
works for nearly four years.
Brian Deese, Obama's special adviser on climate change and the
environment, said the federal government has an obligation to set
"rules of the road" regarding fracking.
"But ultimately this is an issue that is going to be decided in
state capitals and in localities as well as in the industry. "We’re
going to see ... a conversation that will play out across the
country, where it should be," Deese said.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Patrick Rucker; Editing
by Bruce Wallace, Toni Reinhold)
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