The Obama administration’s 2015 fracking rule was never actually implemented, thanks to an ongoing court battle, and it apparently never will be.
The Interior Department published a final rule Friday in the Federal Register repealing immediately the hydraulic-fracturing regulation on federal lands, saying that “we believe it imposes administrative burdens and compliance costs that are not justified.”
The previous fracking rule was already moribund after a federal judge in Wyoming struck it down in June 2016 in response to a four-state lawsuit, holding that the Bureau of Land Management had overstepped its authority by acting without congressional approval.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had given the BLM until Jan. 12 to move ahead with its appeal, but the repeal renders the case moot.
The decision met with cheers from Western lawmakers and oil-and-gas advocates, who had argued that the federal rule duplicated existing state regulations on hydraulic fracturing and energy production. – READ MORE
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