![fracking equipment](http://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/fracking-shutterstock.jpg?w=250)
ShutterstockFrack that.
Draft federal fracking rules unveiled in May were awfully fracker-friendly, but North Dakota lawmakers are still arguing that they would stifle the industry in their state. They are asking the Interior Department to exempt the drilling bonanza in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields from the new federal rules.
“The unique geology, technology, and innovation in North Dakota exemplifies why a one-size-fits-all approach to oil and gas regulation does not work,” wrote Sen. John Hoeven (R), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D), and Rep. Kevin Cramer (R) in an Aug. 23 letter dug up by The Hill.
“The federal government should allow states and tribes to move forward with their own sophisticated regulatory framework instead of stifling them with a generic blanket of federal regulations. We believe such federal regulations will hamper innovative approaches being developed throughout the country.”
Well, heaven forbid anybody do anything to hamper the country’s rampant fracking boom.
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