EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect
Is all the hullabaloo over new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules for fracking on federal lands just a bunch of, well, hullabaloo? According to Howard Gruenspecht, deputy administrator at the Energy Information Administration (EIA)–perhaps. In a speech he delivered yesterday at the Summer NAPE Expo in Houston, Gruenspect said that most federal lands are located in the western part of the U.S., and most shale plays don’t overlap with those lands. Which is an interesting perspective because according to the American Petroleum Institute the BLM rules as originally drafted would cost drillers big bucks (see New BLM Fracking Rule will Cost Drillers Nearly $100K per Well).
Some of Gruenspecht’s comments from yesterday’s early morning session:
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