Two leading Democrats on the US House Natural Resources Committee questioned the US Bureau of Land Management's Dec. 29, 2017, rescission of its 2015 hydraulic fracturing regulation because the agency's justification varied dramatically from one it reached in 2012 when it explained why the rule was needed.
At that time, BLM said that existing regulations were inadequate and did not reflect changes to technology and industry best practices that had occurred and did not include wellbore integrity standards even though such standards existed, Ranking Minority Member Raul M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee Member Alan Lowenthal (Calif.) said.
"BLM now claims it believes the 2015 fracing rule is duplicative because all 32 states with federal oil and gas leases having fracing regulations, and that those regulations combined with BLM's 'own existing regulations and requirements' are sufficient," they continued in their Jan. 11 letter to Assistant Interior Sec. for Land and Minerals Management Joseph Balash.
BLM even states repeatedly in the Dec. 29 notice rescinding the 2015 regulation and supplemental documents "that rescinding the 2015 hydraulic fracturing rule will not have any impact on the number of hydraulic fracturing operations on public lands, making it clear that the only purpose of rescinding the rule is to reduce accountability and lower costs for oil and gas companies, not increase energy production or create additional jobs," Grijalva and Lowenthal said.
Referring to BLM's justification that the 2015 rule is not necessary because all states where fracing is taking place on federal leases have regulations of their own, the lawmakers said that those laws vary widely in coverage and stringency.
"Regulations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky have nothing in common with the BLM fracing rule, other than a requirement for chemical disclosure, while 10 other states are lumped [together] and show no overlap with the BLM regulation at all," they said.
Grijalva and Lowenthal maintained that, given without the 2015 rule, BLM cannot say specifically how many wells are fraced on public and Indian tribal land, "it is an absolute certainty that rescinding the rule will reduce public awareness and understanding of the practice, which is too steep of a price to pay simply to save industry a de minimis addition to the cost of a well." They said.
The lawmakers asked Balash to provide correspondence from Jan. 20 to Dec. 29, 2017, between BLM and the American Petroleum Institute, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Western Energy Alliance, and the states of North Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah regarding the possible rescission of the agency's 2015 fracing rule.