Obama surrogate applauds states on fracking

A surrogate for the Obama campaign praised states’ abilities to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even as the administration prepares to roll out federal rules on the practice.

Elgie Holstein, an energy adviser for the Obama campaign, said Sunday on Platts Energy Week TV that “the states are doing a good job” with overseeing natural gas drilling.

Fracking injects a high pressure mixture of chemicals, sand and water into tight rock formations to unlock natural gas. It has drawn criticism from environmentalists who believe the practice contaminates groundwater and leads to seismic activity.

The Obama administration is crafting regulations that will impose new controls on fracking on federal lands. The public comment period on the Bureau of Land Management's proposal ended last week.

“This is a big issue everywhere and I don’t think any governor or state legislature would want to treat this cavalierly, and that’s great,” Holstein said.

He added, though, that federal oversight was needed to bring uniform regulations and said the campaign would not support devolving control of federal lands to the states.

"I can’t imagine people in the oil-and-gas industry want a patchwork quilt of different state laws and approaches to administering federal lands,” Holstein said.

Jeff Holmstead, director of environmental strategies with the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani and who appeared in support of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said Holstein's praise for local handling of fracking underscored the importance of allowing local and state officials to regulate the practice.

“These are local issues. There’s the geologies -- and I think we agree on this,” Holmstead said. “There does need to be oversight, and I think the public needs to understand this can be done safely, but we don’t need more federal government involvement.”

Romney has advocated for states to handle drilling oversight, as well as for them to gain control of activity on federal lands within their borders.

The Obama campaign has been warming up to natural gas recently. With a carbon intensity half of coal, natural gas is credited with helping bring U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to an 18-year low.

But Romney and congressional Republicans have said the administration’s permitting process is too slow. They also say Obama has been too restrictive when it comes to drilling on federal lands.

This post was updated at 1:06 p.m.

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