A federal judge struck down the Obama administration’s signature effort to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands.
Bloomberg reports the ruling places another of the president’s environmental initiatives in legal limbo months before he leaves office.
The ruling was issued by Wyoming-based District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl late Tuesday.
It blocks the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management from enforcing a 2015 rule that set detailed standards for the construction of oil and gas wells drilled into some 700 million acres of federal land.
The new ruling—almost certain to be appealed—follows similar setbacks for other pieces of President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy, including a Supreme Court stay of the Clean Power Plan that forces states to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The decision also foreshadows the tough path ahead for another regulation still on the horizon: a Bureau of Land Management proposal to block energy companies from venting or burning natural gas from wells burrowed into public land.
In an email to Bloomberg, the Interior Department called the ruling “unfortunate,” because “it prevents regulators from using 21st century standards to ensure that oil and gas operations are conducted safely and responsibly on public and tribal lands.”
Reuters has the full story.
