Will New Federal Rules Create Unnecessary Hindrance For Drillers?

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From Free Enterprise:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed new rules on hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and natural gas on federal and Indian lands. I guess after watching EPA and the Department of Transportation go after shale energy, they wanted to get in on the action too.
In her response to BLM, Institute for 21st Century Energy president and CEO, Karen Harbert pointed out that the proposed rule is unnecessary, duplicative of state regulatory efforts, and will harm the job-creating energy industry.
First, BLM doesn’t offer a reason to issue a new rule. They don't explain how current federal and state rules are inadequate. “This underlying work is the minimum one would expect from the agency before proposing regulations, and without such a minimal foundation, it is premature to propose this rule,” comments Harbert.
Second, unlike many state regulations, the proposed BLM rule lacks clear standards. “The rule focuses on information which needs to be submitted by the applicant or permit holder, rather than the underlying performance requirement or standard which needs to be met,” Harbert says. This could delay well construction and operations by having companies “complete additional tests or to wait for BLM to review information.”
Read the rest of the article here.

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