Well the administration that has taken so much credit for energy production by private industry on private lands has proved once again it has no compunctions about putting a stick in the spokes of that industry. The Obama Administration rolled out its new regulations on natural gas on Wednesday.
Unfortunately; the new regulations come with new requirements on producers, who oddly enough have already been bending to the will of the EPA and the heavy hand of environmentalists to meet clean air requirements.
Natural gas is clean burning and easy on things like cars and trucks. And natural gas provides jobs. The new EPA regulations which are being touted by Lisa Jackson as “cost effective” are actually cost prohibitive.
As Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance points out: “Only a federal agency far removed from real-world economics and on-the-ground conditions could say with a straight face that a regulation is cost effective when it has $745 million in costs and only $11-19 million in benefits. Even with that disparity, we believe EPA seriously overestimated the benefits and underestimated the costs of compliance.”
In a nutshell, this allows the administration to yet again do an end-run around congress and allow unelected appointees (funny how well those work out when they aren’t on the Supreme Court) manage the country to prevent global warming.
And if global warming is such a threat then would some care to step up and explain why the Himalayan Glaciers have been increasing in size?
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As to the dangers of fracking? Feel free to peruse this article from Energy in Depth that takes a closer look at “Gasland.”
Natural gas prices are low, making it an even more logical choice of alternative energy. Especially for Americans who are on the fuzzy end of the economic lollipop.
But I suppose when your crony capitalists buddies at Solyndra and Fisker can’t make a buck, A123 batteries are blowing up, wind turbine parts are being made in Asia instead of the United States, well, you have to do something to drive prices up.
Thus you can force the restoration of faith in a green energy industry that just isn’t showing a profit, and while you keep the private sector in its place as well.
And of course, nothing shows that the government cares like forcing more regulations on an industry that is already working very hard to address emissions issues on its own.
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