Trump administration rescinding rules for oil, gas drilling
President Donald Trump's administration is rescinding proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing and other oil- and gas-drilling practices on government lands.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday the rescission would take effect Friday.
The rules developed under President Barack Obama would have applied to drilling on federal lands located mainly in the West. They were set to take effect in 2015 but a judge in Wyoming sided with petroleum industry groups and blocked them at the last minute.
In September, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver declined to rule in that case because the Trump administration intended to rescind the rules.
The rules would have required companies to disclose chemicals used in fracking, the process of pumping pressurized water underground to break open hydrocarbon deposits.
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