Governor Matt Mead is asking the Department of Interior to give the state 90 days of additional time to respond to new federal hydraulic fracturing rules.
The governor is concerned that the rules, when combined with existing state rules, will drive up costs for the oil and gas industry. He says Wyoming wants more time to study impacts to the state.
The Western Energy Alliance did a study that indicated that the new rules could drive up costs substantially. Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Kathleen Sgamma says the problems stem from the fact that the B-L-M is not used to regulating fracking.
“It’s not really carefully crafted based on expertise that the states have gained over 60 years. It adds a lot of requirements that are paperwork intensive, time intensive, and don’t really make sense because BLM lacks the experience and expertise to really regulate this effectively.”
Sgamma says in Wyoming, the new rules will drive up costs by $250-thousand dollars a well. She says that will lead to a significant impact on the industry, as will delays.
“Right now it takes Wyoming 30 days or less on average to process a permit while it takes the federal government 298 days to process a permit.”
Governor Mead says that could have a serious impact on Wyoming’s bottom line.
