Federal efforts to expand oversight of oil and gas drilling are threatening to derail development of U.S. energy without necessarily improving safety, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said Thursday.
Rex Tillerson said federal efforts to expand drilling oversight may have caused states to delay rule updates.
The push by the Environmental Protection Agency and a handful of other agencies to have a say in the controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," has had little impact so far on energy giant Exxon, Mr. Tillerson said in an interview following the company's analysts meeting in New York on Thursday.
But the federal effort is hampering state-level regulators, who are primarily responsible for overseeing oil and gas operations and in some cases may be putting off updating rules for fear that they will be overruled by federal laws in the coming years, he said