I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 928 
To clarify that a State has the sole authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing 
on Federal land within the boundaries of the State. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 7, 2017 
Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. YOHO, Mr. COLE, Mr. 
PEARCE, and Mr. CRAMER) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the 
Committees on Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure, and En-
ergy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To clarify that a State has the sole authority to regulate 
hydraulic fracturing on Federal land within the bound-
aries of the State. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fracturing Regula-
tions are Effective in State Hands Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
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(1) hydraulic fracturing is a commercially viable 
practice that has been used in the United States for 
more than 60 years in more than 1,000,000 wells; 
(2) the Ground Water Protection Council, a na-
tional association of State water regulators that is 
considered to be a leading groundwater protection 
organization in the United States, released a report 
entitled ‘‘State Oil and Natural Gas Regulations De-
signed to Protect Water Resources’’ dated May 2009 
finding that the ‘‘current State regulation of oil and 
gas activities is environmentally proactive and pre-
ventive’’; 
(3) that report also concluded that ‘‘[a]ll oil 
and gas producing States have regulations which are 
designed to provide protection for water resources’’; 
(4) a 2004 study by the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, entitled ‘‘Evaluation of Impacts to Un-
derground Sources of Drinking Water by Hydraulic 
Fracturing of Coalbed Methane Reservoirs’’, found 
no evidence of drinking water wells contaminated by 
fracture fluid from the fracked formation; 
(5) a 2009 report by the Ground Water Protec-
tion Council, entitled ‘‘State Oil and Natural Gas 
Regulations Designed to Protect Water Resources’’, 
found a ‘‘lack of evidence’’ that hydraulic fracturing 
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conducted in both deep and shallow formations pre-
sents a risk of endangerment to ground water; 
(6) a January 2009 resolution by the Interstate 
Oil and Gas Compact Commission stated ‘‘The 
states, who regulate production, have comprehensive 
laws and regulations to ensure operations are safe 
and to protect drinking water. States have found no 
verified cases of groundwater contamination associ-
ated with hydraulic fracturing.’’; 
(7) on May 24, 2011, before the Oversight and 
Government Reform Committee of the House of 
Representatives, Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of 
the Environmental Protection Agency, testified that 
she was ‘‘not aware of any proven case where the 
fracking process itself has affected water’’; 
(8) in 2011, Bureau of Land Management Di-
rector Bob Abbey stated, ‘‘We have not seen evi-
dence of any adverse effect as a result of the use of 
the chemicals that are part of that fracking tech-
nology.’’; 
(9)(A) activities relating to hydraulic fracturing 
(such as surface discharges, wastewater disposal, 
and air emissions) are already regulated at the Fed-
eral level under a variety of environmental statutes, 
including portions of— 
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(i) the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.); 
(ii) the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
U.S.C. 300f et seq.); and 
(iii) the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et 
seq.); but 
(B) Congress has continually elected not to in-
clude the hydraulic fracturing process in the under-
ground injection control program under the Safe 
Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.); 
(10) in 2011, the Secretary of the Interior an-
nounced the intention to promulgate new Federal 
regulations governing hydraulic fracturing on Fed-
eral land; 
(11) a February 2012 study by the Energy In-
stitute at the University of Texas at Austin, entitled 
‘‘Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protec-
tion in Shale Gas Development’’, found that ‘‘[n]o 
evidence of chemicals from hydraulic fracturing fluid 
has been found in aquifers as a result of fracturing 
operations’’; and 
(12) on October 1, 2014, the Ground Water 
Protection Council and State Oil and Gas Regu-
latory Exchange released a report entitled ‘‘State Oil 
and Gas Regulations Designed to Protect Water Re-
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sources’’ that describes the cutting edge of State- 
based oil and gas regulations, concluding that ‘‘In 
step with dramatic industry growth over the past 
five years, states have substantially improved 
groundwater protection laws and regulations gov-
erning oil and natural gas production.’’. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF FEDERAL LAND. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘Federal land’’ means— 
(1) public lands (as defined in section 103 of 
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)); 
(2) National Forest System land; 
(3) land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of 
Reclamation; and 
(4) land under the jurisdiction of the Corps of 
Engineers. 
SEC. 4. STATE AUTHORITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A State shall have the sole au-
thority to promulgate or enforce any regulation, guidance, 
or permit requirement regarding the treatment of a well 
by the application of fluids under pressure to which prop-
ping agents may be added for the expressly designed pur-
pose of initiating or propagating fractures in a target geo-
logic formation in order to enhance production of oil, nat-
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ural gas, or geothermal production activities on or under 
any land within the boundaries of the State. 
(b) FEDERAL LAND.—The treatment of a well by the 
application of fluids under pressure to which propping 
agents may be added for the expressly designed purpose 
of initiating or propagating fractures in a target geologic 
formation in order to enhance production of oil, natural 
gas, or geothermal production activities on Federal land 
shall be subject to the law of the State in which the land 
is located. 
Æ 
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