In March,the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized new rules to regulate hydraulic oil and gas fracturing on public lands and challenges to that law began immediately. Last month, the Federal District Court of Wyoming cleared the way for states to challenge the sweeping federal authority to impose these regulations.
Texas has been facing the same issue on a more local level. The Texas ouse and senate recently approved legislation that favors state control that would would limit a city’s ability to impose regulations on oil and gas industry activities.
Related: Fracking in Texas Cities: Who's the Boss?
Colorado is joining Wyoming and North Dakota to challenge the new US federal government’s fracking rules and argue in their lawsuit that the new rules supersede the state’s authority and “invade” the jurisdiction of the state regulatory bodies. They also claim these additional rules aren’t necessary because the EPA has already granted authority to the states to monitor and protect underground water sources.
“Colorado has robust regulations on oil and gas development, including hydraulic fracturing, and our agency regulators are doing a good job implementing them. I believe it is important to test BLM’s novel assertion of regulatory authority in an area that has been traditionally—and in this case expressly—reserved for the states.”