The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released an updated draft proposal for rules regarding hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands. The updated proposal reflects public feedback on the initial proposal published in 2012.  This most recent draft includes new regulations on trade secret disclosure, and establishes new baselines for environmental safeguards and water quality monitoring mechanisms. Opponents of the legislation report that the new rules are superfluous and only duplicate the regulations already in place in states where hydraulic fracturing already occurs.

The BLM reported in 2012 that hydraulic fracturing was used in conjunction with approximately 90 percent of wells drilled on federal and Indian lands. Today, oil and gas recovered on federal and Indian lands accounts for 5 and 13 percent, respectively, of total U.S. consumption.

The draft proposal is open for public comment for 30 days, and will come to a close on June 10, 2013.