Fracking Now A Major Source Of US Oil, However Obama Administration Wants To Impose New Regulations. Another Attempt To "Change America"?

House Blocks Obama Administration’s Fracking Regulations

November 22, 2013 by Ben Bullard 

PHOTOS.COM

In a bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives decided Wednesday to block White House regulations on fracking (hydraulic fracturing), citing the fact that States already regulate the practice and that an extra layer of Federal red tape will only slow America’s re-emerging oil and natural gas economy.

Supported by 12 Democrats and opposed by two Republicans, Wednesday’s 235-187 passage of H.R. 2728 represents an early symbolic defeat for President Barack Obama, who has proposed that fracking on Federal lands should be regulated by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The President has, of course, threatened to veto the bill, if it survives a more arduous trip through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Prior to the vote, House Republicans said it doesn’t make sense for Obama to attempt to fix a policy that isn’t broken.

“Hydraulic fracturing has been safely and effectively regulated by States for decades. So the Obama Administration’s proposed regulations are unnecessary,” said Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. “They’re redundant, and it simply wastes precious time and money duplicating what is already being done successfully.”

The bill specifically forbids the Department of the Interior from enforcing any Federal regulation on hydraulic fracturing on Federal lands, as well as on tribal lands that regulate the exploitation of their own mineral resources.

It also requires the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study on the environmental impact of fracking that takes into account the efficacy of regulatory practices set in place by the States.