Federal Hydraulic Fracturing Rule Stayed by Wyoming Court

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U.S. District Court of Wyoming judge Scott W. Skavdahl has granted a stay of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) federal hydraulic fracturing rule. Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado, Utah, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and the Western Energy Alliance prevailed in showing a credible threat of irreparable harm from the agency’s rule, but Skavdahl did not fully rule on their call for a preliminary injunction because the government has not submitted the full administrative record.

Compliance with the rule, originally intended to go into effect June 24, has been delayed until about early August. The U.S. government has until
July 22 to submit the administrative record, after which Skavdahl will more fully rule. He has agreed that the arguments of the states and energy industry litigants have merit and that BLM should not implement the rule in a hurried manner when plaintiffs have a strong chance of prevailing.

“BLM was ill-prepared to implement an extremely complex rule in a short period of time,” said Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government and public affairs for the Western Energy Alliance. “We highlighted how the BLM Washington office has not given sufficient guidance to the state and field offices that are implementing the rule, and as a result they were issuing confused instructions to companies on how to comply. The judge agreed that it makes no sense to implement an ill-conceived rule which could ultimately be overruled in court.”

On March 20, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued the final hydraulic fracturing rule for federal and tribal lands. Immediately following the announcement of the rule, the Western Energy Alliance and the Independent Petroleum Association of America filed a lawsuit to overturn the rule because it is redundant with existing state regulation and will further discourage responsible development on federal lands. The states of Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado, and Utah also filed suit in Wyoming federal district court. Subsequently, the Southern Ute tribal nation filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Colorado. BLM cannot point to a single incident on public lands to justify new hydraulic fracturing rules. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency agrees hydraulic fracturing does not pose significant risks to groundwater that aren’t already being mitigated by states.

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