Today, during a hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) confronted Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Neil Kornze on the Bureau’s utter lack of preparedness in anticipation of the impending hydraulic fracturing rule on federal lands, which BLM was scheduled to begin implementing on June 23, 2015.  The rule has been delayed because the District Court of Wyoming issued a stay due to the “credible threat of irreparable harm: [in] cost of compliance, as well as the loss of revenue,” for states, tribes, and industry. 

Watch the exchange below.

Bishop: In your prepared statement, you quoted that the BLM’s overall intent for coordinated efforts with the state is to minimize duplication and maximize efficiency and you also say that implementation of the rules has been temporarily paused as a result of litigation. 

Let’s assume we can go back in time, it’s June 23rd before the judge has put on that stay for the rule. I know Colorado was still waiting for their variances and as I understand no other state had variances in place on June 23rd did they?

Kornze: No.

Bishop: I understand from other testimony like North Dakota also said they needed fourteen new hires to be able to successfully implement the law. They were not actually implemented or hired were they?

Kornze: Well, we have a flexible system and we move where we need to, like when we have to push additional bodies to high volume offices. 

Bishop: The bottom line is still they weren’t there. And instructional memoranda sent to state offices advising them of implementation rules, that did not exist on the 23rd either did it?

Kornze: That’s correct.

Bishop: So at the time just before its implementation there were no variances that were out there, the number of people were inadequate, there was no clear guidance to the districts, like my state which I think had been doing an excellent job at ensuring protection of the environment with hydraulic fracturing.

 Game, set, match.