Federal Court Defends Trump’s Repeal of Fracking Regulations

April 1, 2020

Last week, a federal judge, appointed during the Obama administration, upheld President Trump’s decision to repeal Obama-era regulations on hydraulic fracking. This is a significant step forward in President Trump’s plan to remove overly burdensome regulations and ensure America’s energy independence.  

California and several eco-left groups sued over the repeal, claiming it was unlawful. The Hill reports Judge Gilliam’s statement on his decision:

The record does not compel the conclusion that [the Bureau of Land Management] arbitrarily ignored foregone benefits or arbitrarily overvalued the costs associated with the 2015 Rule, as California Plaintiffs urge.

Once again, accusations from environmental activists amounted to nothing more than unsubstantiated political rhetoric. The unnecessary regulation would have required companies to say what chemicals they use in fracking, make them cover surface ponds that contain fracking fluids and set well construction standards, which activist groups are still committed to insisting companies do. The Sierra Club, whose extremist agenda is outlined in this Power The Future report, made the following statement:

The Trump administration was wrong to rescind this commonsense protection, and it’s disappointing that the court is allowing this dangerous rollback to stand.

Unsurprisingly, they are positioning their ideology over the legal opinion of a federal judge. The American Petroleum Institute, on the other hand, sees the benefits of removing burdensome regulations:

Adding a layer of duplicative federal regulations would not improve on the success of existing state and tribal regulations. Today’s decision affirms that repeal of the rule is sound public policy.

Particularly in these challenging times, the natural gas and oil industry needs to be supported, and America needs to maintain its energy dominance. In order to do that, there can’t be red tape in the way of an industry that provides Americans with millions of jobs and the economy with billions of dollars in revenue.