Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Colorado sues federal government over fracking

Colorado has joined Wyoming and North Dakota in challenging the US federal government’s rules to regulate fracking on federal public lands, which were issued in March. The lawsuit argues that the new rules supersede the state’s authority and “invade” the jurisdiction of the state regulatory bodies. Colorado follows Wyoming and North Dakota in opposing the federal government’s legislation, all three states have questioned whether the BLM has the authority to impose a regulatory framework over the states for hydraulic fracturing. “Colorado has robust regulations on oil and gas development, including hydraulic fracturing, and our agency regulators are doing a good job implementing them,” said the state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. “I believe it is important to test BLM’s novel assertion of regulatory authority in an area that has been traditionally — and in this case expressly—reserved for the states. “To be clear, this case is not about whether hydraulic fracturing should or should not be regulated. It should be regulated, and Colorado is doing so,” Coffman explained...more

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