North Dakota is joining Wyoming’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management over its new fracking for rules for federal and tribal lands.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says one of the major problems with the new rules is that they could dramatically lengthen the 10 months it now takes to get an oil and gas permit from the federal government.
"[The federal agencies] have acknowledged that they don’t have the staff to issue the permits on a timely basis and now they propose this kind of rule that will only increase to months or years the time it takes," he said.
Stenehjem also says the rules duplicate existing fracking regulation in North Dakota. Other neighboring states, like Colorado haven’t weighed in on the new rules yet.
