Rule

The oil and natural gas industry reacted favorably to the Trump administration’s delivery on a promise to reduce environmental oversight of U.S. waters by issuing final rules Thursday that are certain to draw litigation.

In a positive development for the oil and gas industry, but one that is also sure to generate legal challenges from environmental groups, the Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a narrowed definition about which waterbodies deserve protection under the federal Clean Water Act.

A requirement implemented by the Obama administration that mandated a special braking system on oil-by-rail shipments has been dropped by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The Department of Interior (DOI) moved Tuesday to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands while revising the remaining provisions, calling the parts of the rule marked for rescission “unnecessarily burdensome” for the oil and gas industry.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule Tuesday that would shift to states much of the responsibility for regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants, potentially opening a door to increased burning of coal, in the Trump administration’s latest maneuver to kill the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP).

A federal judge in South Carolina on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from delaying enforcement of a controversial Obama-era definition of what constitutes Waters of the United States (WOTUS), issuing an injunction making the rule law in 26 states where the 2015 Clean Water Rule (CWR) has not already been stayed.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers said they plan to repeal, rather than modify, a controversial Obama-era definition of what constitutes Waters of the United States (WOTUS), arguing that the definition has led to regulatory uncertainty and runs afoul of previous rulings by the Supreme Court.

Just six weeks after a federal judge in California ruled that parts of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands should take effect, a federal judge in Wyoming on Wednesday reversed course and issued a stay, giving the Trump administration more time to revise or rescind the rule.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) on Monday added two hearings and extended the comment period on proposed regulations regarding hydraulic fracturing activities, giving the public another month to weigh in.