White House Delays BLM Draft HF Rule

White House Delays BLM Draft HF Rule

Monday Morning Report, June 25, 2012

The Obama administration announced Friday that the Bureau of Land Management's  (BLM) hydraulic fracturing comment period will be extended 60 days at the request of industry, a top White House official said, to fix problems with the regulation. "We know that there are some pretty significant things within that proposal need to be fixed and addressed, and we're going to do that," Heather Zichal, President Obama's top adviser on energy and climate change issues, told a roomful of people from the natural gas industry last Thursday. “Mostly in response to concerns we have heard from industry about the need to extend that comment period, we will be extending that comment period,” Zichal said.

Interior’s Bureau of Land Management had initially required comments by July 10 on the regulations that will govern the oil-and-gas development method called hydraulic fracturing on public lands.

A Department of  Interior spokesman said the decision made to give stakeholders more time to provide feedback is important. “To ensure that the public and key stakeholders, including industry and public health groups, are able to provide important feedback that will help inform any final rule, Interior has decided to extend the public comment period for our commonsense draft rule, which supports the continued development of America’s abundant oil and gas resources on federal and Indian lands by taking steps to ensure public confidence in well stimulation techniques and technologies, including hydraulic fracturing,” said spokesman Adam Fetcher.

The Department of Interior floated draft rules in May that require industry disclosure of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. The draft rules also address well integrity and management of so-called flow-back water.  The draft rule drew criticism from industry groups that say hydraulic fracturing is regulated adequately at the state-level, while environmentalists cheered the federal plans and argued they should be stronger.

Industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute and America’s Natural Gas Alliance, had pressed Interior for a 90-day extension of the comment period. When rolling out the draft fracking rules, Interior officials said they planned to finalize the regulations by the end of the year. Fetcher, the Interior spokesman, said the extended comment period probably won't delay completion of a final regulation. "We don’t expect this extension will have an impact on the timing for a final rule later this year," he said.

In addition to the industry groups, parties including several state governors had also called for more time to comment on the draft regulations. For a copy of the BLM Hydraulic Fracturing draft regulation, please click here.