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Today the House of Representatives passed a bill cosponsored by Congressman Kevin Cramer maintaining states authority over regulating hydraulic fracturing. The Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act requires the Department of the Interior to defer to state regulations, permitting, and guidance for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands within any given state’s boundaries.

“Oversight of hydraulic fracturing is a task successfully left to states for the last 60 years, allowing for smarter regulation based on unique geology and hydrology. In North Dakota, our developers and regulators are working together every day to responsibly produce our natural resources for the nation. This legislation would remove the federal government’s constant threats of imposing its mediocrity on North Dakota’s excellence,” saidCongressman Cramer.

Cramer and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor both spoke on the House floor to urge passage of the bill. In his remarks, Cantor cited his recent trip to North Dakota led by Congressman Cramer.

“The States and local regulators should be allowed to do this job without federal interference. I saw firsthand, when I accompanied my colleague from North Dakota, Rep. Kevin Cramer, in Williston, wellheads that were being drilled. And the last thing they need in North Dakota are the federal regulators coming in to tell them how to drill a well,” said Leader Cantor.

Despite no confirmed cases of hydraulic fracturing contaminating water resources and ongoing studies at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Obama administration released a proposal to create the first-ever regulation of hydraulic fracturing at the federal level on May 16.  

National and state research continues to support state regulation of hydraulic fracturing. An economic analysis conducted by the economics firm John Dunham & Associates estimates a cost of $253,800 per well would be placed on energy producers and consumers if proposed duplicative federal hydraulic fracturing rules were implemented. A University of North Dakota professor concluded, “with [North Dakota’s] unique geology and a proactive regulatory framework, properly enforced, fracking in the Bakken/Three Forks Formations does not put our groundwater at serious risk.”

Cramer has examined the Obama Administration’s ongoing action against hydraulic fracturing at numerous committee hearings, noting the lack of transparency associated with the results of research studies and continued waste of federal resources on a task already successfully handled by states.

Earlier today the House passed the Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act of 2013, a separate energy bill cosponsored by Cramer to expand responsible domestic energy production on federal lands. Congressman Cramer serves on the Natural Resources and Science, Space and Technology Committees. Within these committees, he serves on the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulations, and the Subcommittee on Energy.