WASHINGTON D.C. — IER President Thomas Pyle sent two letters today to Obama administration officials requesting more time for public comment on new regulations that potentially threaten the development of America’s energy resources, raise consumer costs and run afoul of existing state regulations that successfully protect the environment. Neither Interior’s new regulation for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands nor the EPA’s Tier 3 Motor Vehicle Emissions and Fuel Standards rule allow for sufficient public comment to ensure thoughtful and fact-based review of these administrative actions, according to Pyle.
“Hydraulic fracturing has been used safely on more than one million wells for over 60 years without one confirmed case of groundwater contamination,” Pyle wrote in his letter to the Bureau of Land Management. “Imposing duplicative federal mandates on hydraulic fracturing would cause further delays in processing permits and further curtail oil and natural gas development on federal lands.”
In his letter to EPA, Pyle raises concerns about lack of transparency in rulemaking at EPA, noting that the agency “has consistently refused to release the data upon which it relies for . . . benefits calculations to the public. This failure is in clear violation of President Obama’s claim that his administration is “the most transparent administration in history.”
Pyle requested both regulators to extend the public comment period for the listed regulations to at least 90 days.
To read Pyle’s letter to the Bureau of Land Management, click here.
To read Pyle’s letter to the EPA, click here.
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