US stalls on fracking laws

A set of proposed US laws governing fracking have been delayed until mid-October, a District Court of Wyoming judge approved on Thursday. The laws would have been ratified in June, but a judge then delayed the hearings until the beginning of September. Now, both sides’ attorneys have requested more time to go over them for the upcoming hearings.

“Given the voluminous nature of the record, the parties agree that additional time is necessary to complete a preliminary review of the record and identify additional citations pertinent to the pending motions for a preliminary injunction,” attorneys wrote on Wednesday.

The regulations concern the environmental and engineering requirements for shale gas drilling on up to 1.81 billion square kilometres of federal land, and they are seen as the last barrier to exploration and production.

The states of Wyoming, North Dakota, Utah and Colorado, along with industry groups, are seeking to stop the regulations from passing into law. They accuse the federal of overreach, both in terms of legislating over the states’ individual authorities, and in terms of slowing revenue streams.

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