The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto two Republican-backed energy bills in the House of Representatives, which aim to reduce federal regulation of energy production in the United States. If the President were presented with either bill “his senior advisors would recommend that he veto” the legislation, the White House said. H.R. 2728, authored by Texas Republican Bill Flores, would restrict the ability of the Bureau of Land Management, part of the Department of Interior, to regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Federal and Indian lands. BLM oversees oil and gas operations, including fracking, on over 700 million acres of such land and subsurface mineral deposits. It has been preparing regulations on environmental safeguards. “The bill, as reported, would undermine these efforts and instead require BLM to defer to existing State regulations on hydraulic […]