Ep. 29: Living With Oil and Gas

The Trump administration has been pulling back federal environmental regulations as fast as it can. The legal argument is that states should be the ones to decide what level of environmental protection and regulation is right for them. In practice, many regulations related to oil and gas development are already in the hands of states, and even local governments. On this episode, we look at how one state is handling one of those regulations, a pretty basic-sounding rule that says how far oil and gas wells must be from someone’s house. What should this number be? What is a safe distance? That is a big, contentious question in places where oil and gas drilling is happening near people. With help from our friends at Inside Energy, we find out how that issue is playing out on the ground.