Trump proposes scrapping Obama-era fracking rule on water pollution
Source: The Guardian
Trump proposes scrapping Obama-era fracking rule on water pollution
Bureau of Land Management says it is moving to discard 2015 regulation as it duplicates state rules and ‘imposes unjustified costs’ on oil and gas industry
Oliver Milman in New York
Tuesday 25 July 2017 12.31 BST
The Trump administration has proposed scrapping an Obama-era rule that aimed to ensure fracking for oil and gas does not pollute water supplies.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is part of the Department of Interior, said on Tuesday that it is moving to scrap the 2015 regulation because it duplicates state rules and “imposes burdensome reporting requirements and other unjustified costs” on the oil and gas industry.
The rule requires that fracking operations on public land are properly constructed so that pollutants do not leak into water supplies. Companies are also obliged to publicly disclose the chemicals in fluids used in fracking, which is a drilling process used to release oil and gas deposits within rock formations.
Despite being finalised two years ago, the fracking rule has never come into force due to a series of court challenges from the fossil fuel industry and several states. The BLM had initially defended the rule but following Donald Trump’s entrance to the White House the agency is now proposing to scrap it.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/25/trump-proposes-scrapping-obama-era-fracking-rule-on-water-pollution