Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead is telling the Interior Department to back off on proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique that boosts the productivity of oil and gas wells. The proposed U.S. Bureau of Land Management rule would require petroleum companies to disclose the chemicals they pump underground during hydraulic fracturing on public lands. Some states, including Wyoming, already have similar regulations. Mead says in a letter Monday that such rules on the federal level would be duplicative and unnecessary. He says the Interior should allow states to take the lead. Environmentalists say fracking can contaminate groundwater. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency theorized that hydraulic fracturing may have contaminated groundwater in a central Wyoming gas field. Wyoming and EPA now are coordinating on additional testing in the area.
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