Obama administration decries judge's fracking ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration today decried a ruling by a federal judge that blocks rules for hydraulic fracturing, saying the decision prevents regulators from using "21st-century standards" to ensure that oil and gas operations are conducted safely on public lands.

Jessica Kershaw, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said "modernized fracking requirements" imposed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell reflect best industry practices and are aimed at ensuring adequate well control, preventing groundwater contamination and increasing transparency about the materials used in fracking.

Kershaw's comments came after a judge in Wyoming ruled late Tuesday that federal regulators lack authority to set rules for hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl deals another setback to the Obama administration's efforts to tighten how fossil fuels are mined.

Judge Skavdahl said the Bureau of Land Management can't set the rules because Congress has not authorized it to do so. The judge, who was nominated by Obama in 2011, wrote that the court's role is not to decide whether hydraulic fracturing is good or bad for the environment, but to interpret whether Congress has given the Department of Interior legal authority to regulate the practice.

"It has not," wrote Judge Skavdahl, who last year blocked implementation of rules drafted by the agency.

The White House cast the ruling as a temporary setback while it awaits a decision from the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which is also reviewing the rule.