Trump Rolls Back Fracking Protections on Federal Lands

WASHINGTON – The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today proposed withdrawing common sense rules for fracking operations on public and tribal lands that would have provided some additional protections for drinking water, public health and the environment.

The rules were finalized in 2015 but had been stayed in federal court.

The following is a statement from Amy Mall, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“This administration is sacrificing our public lands and neighboring communities to the oil and gas industry. While these rules still fall far short of what’s needed to reduce impacts from fracking, they would have provided some much-needed steps to better safeguard drinking water supplies, public health and the environment. This is just one more example of where this administration’s loyalties lie: with industry and polluters, not the people.”

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.