It’s no surprise that newly-minted U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is sticking up for federal regulation of fracking as proposed by her agency’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For now, BLM rules–once in effect–will be used to regulate fracking on public lands, mostly found in western U.S. However, the Obama administration has expressed its desire to grow the BLM regulations to include private land too (see Feds ‘Hope’ States will Use BLM Rules for ALL Fracking). Danger Will Robinson!
Testifying before the House Natural Resources committee yesterday, Republicans grilled Jewell about the new BLM regulations. Members of her own party (Democrat) chided her over the BLM’s use of FracFocus.org to report chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid. Jewell’s response was less-than-comforting and (we would argue) a veiled threat that the BLM will dump using FracFocus at some point…
