Obama to unveil fracking rules

[babylonsister]

This article is horrible/so biased. IMHO. politico, say it isn't so!


ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Obama to unveil fracking rules

The Interior Department is set to announce major restrictions on the controversial drilling technique. Expect blowback.

By Elana Schor

3/19/15 7:30 PM EDT


Oil field workers drill into the Gypsum Hills near Medicine Lodge, Kan. | AP Photo


The Obama administration is set to unveil the first major nationwide safety restrictions on fracking, touching off a fresh political confrontation between the president and his critics in Congress and the energy industry.

The Interior Department’s rules — expected to be released as soon as Friday — are the federal government’s most comprehensive foray to date toward regulating the technology at the heart of the U.S. oil and gas boom, addressing worries such as potential dangers to drinking water. They will also offer oil and gas supporters new room to accuse President Barack Obama of seeking to throttle fossil-fuel production, despite his repeated boasts about the nation’s booming energy supplies.

At the same time, the rules fall short of environmentalists’ biggest demands for oversight of fracking operations — let alone some groups’ calls for an all-out ban.

Interior’s proposal would apply only to land owned by the federal government or Indian tribes, so it wouldn’t end the current patchwork of state laws and local ordinances governing the practice in hot spots like Pennsylvania, south Texas and North Dakota. But the industry and its supporters in Congress still call it an overreach, arguing that greens are massively exaggerating the dangers and that states are adequately regulating the industry already.

“Washington continues to come out with regulations that make it more complex and complicated to develop American energy,” said GOP Sen. John Barrasso, whose home state of Wyoming imposed its own fracking regulations in 2010. He said he is “likely to oppose whatever” Interior’s Bureau of Land Management proposes.

But the liberal Center for American Progress says the regulations are an important step.


more...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/interiors-fracking-rules-ready-for-launch-116241.html?cmpid=sf#ixzz3UsSggyvQ

[annabanana]

1. I wish they'd stop calling it "America's Energy"!

There's an ad in heavy rotation here in NY about "good all American energy" of natural gas...

goddam it..
It belongs to whichever monster corp manages to get it out of the ground and goes on the international market like everything else.

The only way it would be "America's" would be if we nationalized the whole shootin' industry.

[NYC_SKP]

2. I think it's a good balance between what's safe and what's reasonable.

And it's limited to tribal and public lands, as it should be.

Obama is really impressive in the way that he refrains from overstepping his authority as leader of the federal government.

[Politicalboi]

3. It should NOT be allowed in drought states

I want it all gone, but for now let's use our water wisely.

[Major Nikon]

4. Barrasso should go drink the water in Pavillion, WY if he's so proud of his state's regulations