Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced another delay in finalizing new regulations of hydraulic fracturing, but said there have been few industry objections to the rule, The Hill reports.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), which had pressed for an extension, said the decision to give the public more time to comment was warranted.

“An additional layer of regulation must be carefully scrutinized and the last thing we need are rules that create confusion in the regulatory process,” Erik Milito, API’s director of upstream and industry operations.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted Thursday for eased safety restrictions on the diabetes pill Avandia, according to The Associated Press.

Europe is wrestling with new online privacy regulations, The New York Times reports.

A bank in Nevada has become the 15th closed this year by regulators, according to the AP. 

Beef labeling regulations proposed Thursday by the Agriculture Department would mislead consumers, a leading industry group contends.

The draft rule would require labels of beef products that had been mechanically tenderized, a method involving the use of a blade or needle to break apart muscle fibers.

Republican lawmakers are piling on demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) addresses accusations that it discriminated against conservative groups in the fees it charges for retrieving public records.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, and 34 other House Republicans sent a letter to acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe on Thursday regarding the agency's policy for granting waivers from charges incurred by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

They write that they are "extremely concerned" that the EPA has shown a bias against conservative organizations in deciding whether or not to waive fees for FOIA requests.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday defended the agency’s work in developing rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act but said more must be done to regulate the international derivatives market.

The CFTC has come under fire from public interest groups, who say new regulations on swaps and derivatives issued by the agency in accordance with the Wall Street reform law have been weakened under industry pressure.

But Chairman Gary Gensler said the CFTC has completed 90 percent of its rules to bring more oversight to the previously unregulated swaps market, which was a significant contributor to the 2008 economic crisis.

“Swaps market reform is becoming a reality,” Gensler said during remarks at the Sandler O'Neill Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference in New York. “No longer will this market be closed and dark.”

A new safety rule developed in the aftermath of the disaster at Japan's Fukushima power station is being handed down to nuclear plants.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Thursday directed 31 reactors to improve the way they let off pressure from the containment buildings that house reactor cores.

The new requirements are meant to ensure that the vents can withstand the pressure, temperatures, radiation and amounts of hydrogen from a damaged reactor. In an emergency, they would stop pressure from building up inside the reactor.

The Agriculture Department is moving to stem outbreaks of foodborne illness by requiring labels on beef that has been mechanically tenderized.

Under regulations proposed Thursday, any beef products that have been poked by needles or sliced by blades must contain labels letting consumers know they should cook the meat to a higher temperature to avoid getting sick.

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Four Republican-authored bills to give states more authority over environmental regulation passed through a House subcommittee with little opposition on Thursday and will now head to the full panel.

The Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Environment and the Economy approved three of the bills by a voice vote, including legislation allowing states to regulate the ash produced by power plants that burn coal, instead of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One bill to give states a larger role in the Superfund process passed by a vote of 11 to 7.

The Pentagon is not following the key requirements of laws designed to cut down on improper payments made to contractors, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The GAO report released Thursday found that the Pentagon had not implemented major provisions of laws passed in 2002 and 2010 that were intended to stop incorrect payments by federal agencies to contractors.

“GAO found that DOD's improper payment estimates reported in its fiscal year 2011 Agency Financial Report were neither reliable nor statistically valid because of long-standing and pervasive financial management weaknesses and significant deficiencies in the department's procedures to estimate improper payments,” the report says.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said she hasn’t heard many complaints from the oil-and-gas industry about the Obama administration’s draft hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, rule.

“I’ve met with a lot of representatives of the oil industry and I don’t hear a lot of objections to the rule. We’re talking about a minimum standard for federal land,” Jewell told reporters Thursday following a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.

Jewell’s comments came after she announced the Interior Department would extend the comment period on the proposed Bureau of Land Management rule by 60 days.