Interior to rescind BLM fracking rules adopted in 2015

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has directed updated federal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules for drilling on public lands be rescinded, Kallanish Energy understands. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion with the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announcing the Bureau of Land Management intends to start a new federal rulemaking process to rescind the rules. That will begin in the next 90 days. Justice also asked a hearing scheduled on March 22 before the appeals court be canceled. That announcement was denounced by environmental groups, including Earthjustice, that’s representing six eco-groups, mostly in the West, in the court case. Those rules had been challenged in federal court in Wyoming by the oil and natural gas drilling industry in 2015, with U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl in Wyoming setting aside the rule. That decision was appealed by BLM and Earthjustice, which had intervened in the case...more