- A federal judge ruled late yesterday that U.S. regulators lack the authority to set rules for hydraulic fracturing, making permanent a temporary block of an Interior Department rule issued in March 2015 that set stricter standards for fracking on public lands.
- The judge, who was nominated by Pres. Obama in 2011, wrote that the court's role is not to decide whether fracking is good or bad for the environment, but to interpret whether Congress has given the agency the legal authority to regulate the practice.
- The ruling is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for Obama’s environmental agenda, which he has pursued by issuing regulations and bypassing Congress.
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