Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act
Key claim: This Senate bill would bar the Interior Department from enforcing federal hydraulic fracturing rules in any state that already regulates fracking, and would require Interior to follow each state’s fracking rules on federal land even if those rules are weaker or different from federal ones.
Abstract
(S1743 · 113th Congress) Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from enforcing any federal regulation, guidance, or permit requirement regarding hydraulic fracturing (including any component of that process), relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on or under any land in any state that has regulations, guidance, or permit requirements for that activity. Requires the Secretary to recognize and defer to state regulations, permitting, and guidance, for all activities regarding hydraulic fracturing relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on federal land regardless of whether those rules are duplicative, more or less restrictive, have different requirements, or do not meet federal regulations, guidance, or permit requirements. Defines “hydraulic fracturing” as the process by which fracturing fluids (including a fracturing fluid system) are pumped into an underground geologic formation to generate fractures or cracks, thereby increasing rock permeability near the wellbore and improving production of natural gas or oil. Latest action (2013-11-20): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Why this matters
The bill is one of a recurring family of state-primacy proposals that would strip Interior of authority to set uniform federal hydraulic fracturing standards on federal land, deferring instead to whatever rules the surrounding state has adopted. If enacted, operators on federal leases in a state with weaker disclosure, casing, or wastewater requirements would face only that lower bar, shifting the practical environmental and public-health floor from federal to state law. It never advanced past committee, but it establishes the template later revived in bills like the FRESH Act.