House

In a memo sent to Republicans lawmakers Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the House will take up a bill, theProtecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act, in the coming weeks that would restrict the Obama administration’s ability to impose duplicative regulations on fracking on federal and tribal lands.

Before leaving for a five-week recess Friday, the House of Representatives passed a series of Republican-sponsored bills aimed at restricting the ability of the federal government to impose what are viewed as costly regulations. However, the bills have little chance of clearing the Democratically controlled Senate. If they do President Obama has signaled that he will veto the measures.

Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to explain how the agency’s forays into three controversial sites will affect its comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

During her first appearance before the House Committee on Natural Resources last Wednesday, Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Sally Jewell, a former business executive and an engineer, got a gander at a political divide as wide as the Grand Canyon.

During an oversight hearing Wednesday by the House Natural Resources Committee on U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) operations, discussion frequently — and fractiously — turned to regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), with Republicans calling for states-only oversight and Democrats complaining that proposed draft federal rules fall short.

House Republicans are pushing legislation that would transfer authority to approve natural gas exports from the Department of Energy (DOE), which has granted two export requests, to FERC, which has only approved one export terminal.

In a maneuver rendered purely symbolic by the party’s minority status in the state’s legislature, a group of Pennsylvania Democrats recently approved a resolution calling for an end to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) said Thursday that localities affected by oil and gas drilling in 2012 will collectively receive $102.7 million from impact fee revenue generated by Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday approved legislation that would expand offshore energy production to include the East and West Coasts, and would extend revenue-sharing to all coastal states.