New U.S. Fracking Rules Earn Disdain from Both Sides—and a Lawsuit
No sooner had the Interior Department released new fracking rules for public lands on Friday than industry groups announced a lawsuit to halt what they called “a reaction to unsubstantiated concerns.”
The new regulations pertain to hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on about 756 million acres of federal and Indian land. They require companies to publicly disclose chemicals used during fracking, and they include stricter standards for well construction and wastewater storage. (See related: “Fracking Next to a Cemetery? 10 Unlikely Sites Targeted for Drilling.”)
In issuing the rule, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management aimed to update regulations that are more than 30 years old. A lot has changed, of course, about oil and gas development in those