In the past two weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have both indicated that they are reconsidering recent rulemaking activities related to hydraulic fracturing. Neither agency provided specifics on the potential revisions.
Last week, EPA asked a federal appeals court to put on hold legal challenges to the new source performance standards (NSPS) and national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) relating to fracking. For more on the lawsuits, see the October 21, 2012, post. EPA indicated it was reconsidering the rules but did not identify the issues it would address.
This week, BLM sent a new version of the proposed regulations governing fracking on federal land to the White House for interagency review. For more on the prior version of the proposed regulations, see the May 8, 2012, post. BLM did not indicate how the new proposal differed from the prior version released last year.