Breaking: Interior Department Bows to Pressure from Oil and Gas Industry, Weakens Fracking Rules

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed an updated set of rules governing hydraulic fracturing, on public lands today. The controversial oil and gas development technique—in which drillers blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to force oil and gas from underground deposits—has been linked to air and water pollution and public health problems.

“Comparing today’s rule governing fracking on public lands with the one proposed a year earlier, it is clear what happened: the Bureau of Land Management caved to the wealthy and powerful oil and gas industry and left the public to fend for itself,” said Jessica Ennis, legislative representative at Earthjustice.

“Our public lands—and the people who live near them—deserve the highest level of protection. Today’s rule could have set the gold standard. Instead the BLM is settling for shoddy protections peddled by the oil and gas industry.”

The updated proposal eliminates protections included in the version proposed last year and fails to include safeguards demanded by environmental and public health advocates.

“There is no requirement for baseline water testing and no setback requirements to govern how close to homes and schools drilling can happen. The new rules also continue to allow the use of toxic diesel fuel for fracking, as well as open pits for storing wastewater—two practices that we know to be environmentally hazardous,” said Ennis.

“The oil and gas industry has gotten used to doing business in a dangerously irresponsible fashion for far too long. Even industry supporters say that oil and gas companies need to stop operating this way. Rather than supporting those calling for reforms, the BLM chose to bow to industry pressure and enable industry’s bad practices,” said Ennis.

ecowatch.com...

I really need to quit following news... Every day I see something like that happening. People/Environment suffering because of greed and corruptness. It is just sad, when thinking about the consequences of the behaviour of people today, which the future generations have to fight with. The more I think about, the more the pictures from some apocalypse movie seem to be a prophecy rather than imagination.

It just occurred to me that in the beginning of your great nation the Native Indian was seen as a savage that needed to be dealt with before the building blocks for a great nation could rest on a solid foundation. Today it seems that mentality of controlling the savages only took a couple of hundred years rest, it never truly went away...Now, it is the America people themselves who are the "Native Indians". To TPTB you are all just worthless savages and you are getting in the way of progress and profit by the corporations who are by letter of the law...People!!

Maybe it should read, "Department of the Interior removes unnecessary BS rules for fracking.

Here comes the sink holes!