Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Environment

Delay Sought For Fracking Rule

by Jeff Johnson
June 3, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 22

[+]Enlarge
Credit: Interior Department Bureau of Land Management
Two oil rigs at California’s Midway-Sunset oil field.
This is a photo of drilling rigs on the Midway-Sunset field in California.
Credit: Interior Department Bureau of Land Management
Two oil rigs at California’s Midway-Sunset oil field.

Reps. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman and ranking minority member of the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, respectively, have urged the Department of the Interior to allow more time for comments on a proposed regulation for oil and natural gas hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands. In a letter released last week, the two asked Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to extend the public comment period for the complex and controversial 171-page proposal from 30 to 120 days. The draft is intended to complement current state regulations, the agency says, but the proposal has been criticized by industry and its congressional allies as an unnecessary layer of red tape and by environmental and conservation groups as being too weak. The draft regulation is a reproposal of another regulation released last year, which received 177,000 public comments. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management oversees approximately 92,000 oil and gas wells. Some 90% of these wells are drilled by fracking and are controlled by regulations that are more than 30 years old.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.