Fracking-regulations battle on federal lands heats up

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is on record as saying that hydraulic fracturing methods to extract oil and gas "can be done safely," but he's not overly impressed with varying state rules overseeing the drilling process. He's been pushing in recent months for his department to tighten its requirements for "well stimulation" procedures on federal lands -- and that's prompted some pushing back from energy interests, claiming that the proposed fracking crackdown could cost $1.5 billion a year in unnecessary delays and red tape. "The proposed rule is a poorly conceived solution to a nonexistent problem," a consortium of independent oil and gas associations claim in a recently released and lengthy set of comments blasting the proposed rule change. "Unfounded concerns without a basis in fact should not be the justification for a rule that will impose significant costs on small businesses, independent producers and society at large in terms of decreased access to energy resources, job loss and slowed economic growth."...more