Oil and Gas; Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands; Rescission of a 2015 Rule

On March 26, 2015, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published in the Federal Register a final rule entitled, "Oil and Gas; Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands" (2015 rule). With this final rule, the BLM is rescinding the 2015 rule because we believe it imposes administrative burdens and compliance costs that are not justified. This final rule returns the affected sections of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to the language that existed immediately before the published effective date of the 2015 rule (June 24, 2015), except for changes to those regulations that were made by other rules published between the date of publication of the 2015 rule and now, and the phrase "perform nonroutine fracturing jobs," which is not restored to the list of subsequent operations requiring prior approval. None of the changes by other rules are relevant to this rulemaking.