BLM Cannot Regulate Fracking

A judge ruled earlier this week that federal regulators don’t have the authority to set rules for hydraulic fracturing. A US District Court Judge in Wyoming ruled that the Bureau of Land Management does not have the authority to regulate fracking because Congress has not given it that power. In his decision the judge wrote that it is not the courts role to decide whether fracking is bad for the environment, but whether congress has given the Department of Interior legal authority to regulate it, which in his opinion they have not. His ruling is the latest setback to the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate energy production. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing the Clean Power Plan, which was intended to reduce power-plant emissions by one-third by 2030.