Federal repeal of fracking regulations affects relatively small amount of Pa. land

• Scott Blanchard/WITF
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  Scott Blanchard was WITF and StateImpact Pennsylvania's former director of journalism, he worked on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training. He worked with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories and was deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.

You might have seen a headline last week about President Trump repealing fracking regulations.

Anything fracking-related is likely to turn heads in Pennsylvania. But the regulations in question had to do with fracking on federally owned land. Because of that, Trump’s action isn’t expected to significantly affect Pennsylvania, which had fewer than 10,000 acres of federal land with oil and gas leases as of fiscal year 2016, according to the Bureau of Land Management

That ranked Pennsylvania 28th among states with such leases, according to BLM data.

The Washington Post reported that the repealed regulations “would have tightened standards for well construction and wastewater management, required the disclosure of the chemicals contained in fracking fluids, and probably driven up the cost for many fracking activities.”

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