Bishop Pleased With Interior's Extension of Public Comment Period for New Hydraulic Fracturing Regs.

Press Release

The U.S. Department of Interior today announced that they will extend the public comment period for the proposed new hydraulic fracturing regulations on public lands an additional 60 days. Congressman Rob Bishop (UT-01), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, submitted a letter to Secretary Sally Jewell on May 23, 2013 requesting that the Department of Interior extend the comment period to 120 days versus the 30 that the Department of Interior initially offered.

Similarly, Bishop has requested that Secretary Jewell extend the comment period on the proposed oil shale regulations from 60 days to a full 120 days.

"I am pleased that Secretary Jewell heeded our request for an extension. Thirty days was far too brief and while we had hoped for 120 days total, 90 is better than no extension at all. Input from the American people is not something that should be exempt from the policies created by Washington bureaucrats. The mere notion that a federal bureaucrat is better suited to determine what is best for this country rather than the hardworking people on the ground is ridiculous. I hope that the Department of Interior heavily considers the input they are receiving. One of this Administration's biggest downfalls is that they operate in a vacuum far too often. I hope Secretary Jewell manages her agency differently than that," said Congressman Bishop.

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