

Read the Frequently Asked Questions on the 2015 BLM hydraulic fracturing rule. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance have filed for intervention on behalf of the federal government as well as filed a motion for venue transfer back to Wyoming. District Court for the Northern District of California. On January 28, 2018, the state of California as well as the Sierra Club sued the BLM over the repeal of the 2015 rule in the U.S. On December 29, 2017, President Trump’s BLM published a repeal of the Obama-era hydraulic fracturing rule, which took immediate effect and ended the Tenth Circuit Court appellate case. In September 2017, the Tenth Circuit Court dismissed the case, protecting producers from the business uncertainty of having to potentially comply with a regulation that is certain to be rewritten by the Trump administration. The judge agreed with industry that BLM does not have the congressional authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal lands.Īs expected, the Obama administration and environmental parties on Jfiled an appeal to the District Court’s ruling with the U.S. District Court of Wyoming granted IPAA and Western Energy Alliance’s motion for a preliminary injunction of the rule, stating, “Congress has not authorized or delegated to the BLM authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing and, under our constitutional structure, it is only through Congressional action that the BLM can acquire this authority.” On June 21, 2016, shortly after the preliminary injunction appeal case was fully briefed, the District Court judge struck down the BLM final rule. On September 30, 2015, a judge for the U.S. The 2015 nationwide fracking rule is unnecessary and would add another layer of burden for America’s independent oil and natural gas producers already struggling to navigate the complex and confusing regulatory program governing federal lands.

States have successfully regulated more than 1.2 million hydraulic fracturing operations for 70 years and many states have recently strengthened their regulations as production has increased and technology has improved. Soon after, the states of Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Utah, and the Ute Indian Tribe joined the legal challenge. District Court of Wyoming, characterizing the federal government’s rulemaking as unsubstantiated and duplicative of states’ efforts to effectively regulate hydraulic fracturing operations. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance immediately challenged the BLM hydraulic fracturing rule in the U.S. As it was written, this precedent-setting regulation would be difficult and costly for small- and medium-sized businesses to comply with and would likely discourage U.S. The Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released on Maits final rule regulating hydraulic fracturing activities on federal and Indian lands.

greenhouse gas emissions to 25-year-lows, strengthened our national security, and transformed the United States into a global energy superpower. By safely unlocking America’s abundant natural resources, fracking has created millions of American jobs, reduced energy prices, brought cleaner air by significantly reducing U.S. Once the fracturing operation is finished, the well is considered “completed” and is now ready to safely produce American oil or natural gas for years, even decades, to come.įracking is a uniquely American success story that has provided immense benefits around the nation. The process takes about three to five days, on average, to complete from start to finish. Put simply, hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting liquid and materials at high pressure to create small fractures within tight shale formations to stimulate the production and safely extract energy from an underground well after the drilling has ended and the rig and derrick are removed from the site. wells have been completed using the fracking process, producing more than seven billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Fracking has been safely used in the United States since 1947. Fracking is a proven drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” as it is more commonly known, is just one small method of the broader process of unconventional development of oil and natural gas. Who Are America’s Independent Producers?.
