Fucking Horrible. Fucking Typical. Nothing to see here. [View all]

[cali]

Obama-appointed judge strikes down federal fracking rule


The decision is a major loss for the administration, which worked for years to update its oil and natural gas drilling regulations to account for dramatic increases and innovations in fracking.

Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District Court of Wyoming agreed with the arguments of industry groups and a handful of western states that said Congress has expressly forbidden Interior from getting into fracking with a 2005 law, with few exceptions.

“Congress has not delegated to the Department of Interior the authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing,” Skavdahl wrote in his opinion published late Tuesday. “The [Bureau of Land Management’s] effort to do so through the Fracking Rule is in excess of its statutory authority and contrary to law.”

Interior had countered with the argument it has broad authority over oil and natural gas development on federal and American-Indian land — the only places where the rule would be enforced. But Skavdahl, who was nominated in 2011 by Obama, disagreed.

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read:http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/284388-judge-strikes-down-federal-fracking-rule