A bill, sponsored by Senator Kevin Van Tassell, that would increase authority of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining is slowly working its way up the legislative ladder.
SB191: State Regulation of Oil and Gas
was approved by the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday and is now placed on the Senate’s 2nd reading calendar. “The idea behind this bill,” explains Senator Van Tassell, “is that the Oil, Gas, and Mining board will set the policy and control the oil and gas. In the state, we end up with conflicts between surface rights and other property but minerals are the dominant asset so if in some areas a city says they want to ban fracking, for example, this says that the state oil and gas governing agency gets to regulate those.” The bill was worked on by many in both Duchesne and Uintah Counties, says Van Tassell, and received the support of Commissioners wanting to see it passed. SB191 will now work its way up the board but there are plenty of bills waiting to be heard so, in the words of Senator Van Tassell, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
