The Obama administration’s unveiling Friday of federal regulations aimed at ensuring the safety of hydraulic fracturing ignited a furious eruption from the industry and Republicans, who blasted the rules an attack on jobs and energy independence.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the additional layer of regulations were needed to update 30-year-old rules, keep pace with technological innovation, and provide “a framework of safeguards and disclosure protocols” on companies using the fracking process on federal lands, including tribal lands.
“Today’s final rule is a major step in the Department of the Interior’s agenda to support a balanced, prosperous energy future,” Ms. Jewell said in a statement. “Other reforms will also include important measures to target where oil and gas leasing occurs and protect sensitive areas that are too special to drill.”
Environmentalists cheered the tougher standards but Republicans were outraged, accusing the Obama administration of once again making it more difficult to develop Western energy resources of public land, which lag behind private lands in oil and gas exploration and extraction.
“The Obama administration is at it again. States like Montana have successfully overseen hydraulic fracturing for years, but once again, the Obama administration seems more set on overregulating our energy industry than promoting the responsible development of our nation’s vast energy resources,” said Sen. Steve Daines, Montana Republican, in a statement.
Critics pointed out the EPA has never found an example of groundwater contamination from fracking, an extraction process involving shooting water at high speeds to loosen underground shale, and that the procedure is already regulated by state agencies.
“This top-down regulation is duplicative, burdensome and ultimately, a direct attack on American energy production, critical tax revenue for our schools and communities, and thousands of good-paying jobs across the nation,” Mr. Daines said.
The Independent Petroleum Association of America and Western Energy Alliance filed a lawsuit shortly after the final rule’s release, calling the heightened standards unnecessary and “another regulatory overreach by the Obama administration.”
The Bureau of Land Management rules result from a four-year process of study and public hearings aimed at developing “best practices” to protect “water, land and wildlife resources” on the 700 million acres of the agency’s mineral estate, said BLM director Neil Kornze.
The fracking rule’s key elements, which take effect in 90 days, include additional requirements for well integrity; requiring companies to disclose publicly chemicals used in fracking fluid within 30 days of operations; higher standards for waste fluids, and requiring companies to submit more information on the geology, depth and location of preexisting wells.
Interior officials insisted the cost of the regulations to the industry would be minimal, less than one-fourth of 1 percent of the cost of drilling a well, using the Energy Information Administration’s average cost per well of $5.4 million.
But the regulations also come as the latest in a series of regulatory moves aimed at the fossil-fuel industry, including the EPA’s proposed rules on ozone and emission standards for coal-fired power plants.
The decision to raise the bar on hydraulic fracturing also comes with the oil and gas industry struggling in the face of plummeting crude oil prices as Middle Eastern oil-producing nations flood the market in an effort to drive U.S. companies out of business.
“At a time when the oil and natural gas industry faces incredible cost uncertainties, these so-called baseline standards will threaten America’s economic upturn, while further deterring energy development on federal lands,” said Barry Russell, IPAA president and CEO, in a statement.
The National Association of Manufacturers called the rules a “one-step-forward, two-steps-back” policy that threatens the manufacturing resurgence.
“States are already effectively and safely regulating hydraulic fracturing and new feeral rules will add additional bureaucracy, more confusion and unnecessary time delays,” said NAM vice president Ross Eisenberg.
Meanwhile, environmental and liberal groups applauded the tougher standards, calling them essential for ensuring public health and safety on federal lands.
“BLM oversees 100,000 onshore oil and gas wells spread over 12.5 million acres, which produce over 10 percent of the nation’s natural gas supply, so it is absolutely critical to bring the agency’s rules up to speed to meet today’s challenges,” said Environmental Defense Fund associate vice president Mark Brownstein in a statement.
Center for American Progress visiting senior fellow David J. Hayes called the rules “common sense standards” that will “provide a consistent baseline across all America’s public lands by ensuring that chemicals are responsibly disclosed, that wells are designed and tested properly, and that contaminated water is being treated and disposed of safely.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who’s considering a bid for the Republican presidential nod, accused the administration of attempting to “appease the party’s liberal fringe rather than create opportunity for all Americans and strengthen our allies.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, noted that the Obama administration has already moved this year to designate 12 million acres in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, which would eliminate any oil exploration in the region.
“The energy renaissance is largely a story about state and private land, but vast resources remain inaccessible and untapped in federal areas, particularly in the West,” Ms. Murkowski said. “This administration has already taken unprecedented steps to block development in Alaska. Given its anti-development approach, we should expect this rule to make it even harder to produce oil and gas on federal lands.”
“The fact remains: if Interior was half as interested in new production as it is in new regulation, our nation would be in a far better place,” Ms. Murkowski said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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