Wyoming Governor Matt Mead on Thursday urged federal officials to abandon efforts to regulate hydraulic fracturing, saying states can do a better
job of it.

Speaking at the Wyoming Gas Fair in Jackson, Mead reiterated his long-held position that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management erred when it launched an effort to regulate the drilling completion practice on the federal and Indian lands it holds, mostly in the Rocky Mountain West.

“Wyoming should always have primacy in this area,” Mead said. He said the state has been a leader in enacting strong measures to regulate fracking and was the first to require producers to reveal the chemical components of their fracking fluids.

He characterized the proposed BLM rule as “a cookie-cutter approach” to regulation.

“It sends a horrible message to a state like Wyoming leader when the federal government comes in,” Mead said. “If you want to have the states step up and be responsible, you can’t provide a disincentive that says ‘we’re going to take it over anyway,’” he said.

“If you put Wyoming’s fracking regulations up against the BLM’s, ours are better in every case,” the governor added. MORE …