President issues official edict on domestic natural gas (and oil) production.

[gsvol]

Starting from the source itself, the White House (aka fascism central).

Executive Order -- Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources | The White House

Because efforts to promote safe, responsible, and efficient development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources are underway at a number of executive departments and agencies (agencies), close interagency coordination is important for effective implementation of these programs and activities. To formalize and promote ongoing interagency coordination, this order establishes a high-level, interagency working group that will facilitate coordinated Administration policy efforts to support safe and responsible unconventional domestic natural gas development.

Wake up, Sunshine! It's a new day.

When the White House wants to slip something by us, they "put it out with the trash" on Friday afternoon after the reporters have gone home for the weekend.

This past Friday, Barry Soetoro Obama took control of the natural gas industry - because states aren't where it's at, baby.

Now when the Sierra Club issues a memo saying fracking causes earthquakes, there is only one switch that has to be thrown to shut things down.

“There is established an Interagency Working Group to Support Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources (Working Group), to be chaired by the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, or a designated representative.

(a) Membership. In addition to the Chair, the Working Group shall include deputy-level representatives or equivalent officials, designated by the head of the respective agency or office, from:

(i) the Department of Defense;

(ii) the Department of the Interior;

(iii) the Department of Agriculture;

(iv) the Department of Commerce;

(v) the Department of Health and Human Services;

(vi) the Department of Transportation;

(vii) the Department of Energy;

(viii) the Department of Homeland Security;

(ix) the Environmental Protection Agency;

(x) the Council on Environmental Quality;

(xi) the Office of Science and Technology Policy;

(xii) the Office of Management and Budget;

(xiii) the National Economic Council; and

(xiv) such other agencies or offices as the Chair may invite to participate.

Oil as well as natural gas is affected by this executive order creating a huge regulatory agency. Shale oil is growing faster than shale gas right now and oil is still needed and still offers a good price. It also requires fracture stimulation for production and this too falls under this ignorant executive order... they think we are just too stupid to associate oil as well...

» Executive Order: Feds To Take Control of Domestic Natural Gas Production Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Now that the President has given the go ahead, there’s nothing holding the government back. The fracking industry stands to be impacted almost immediately, with federal agencies prepared to tear into operations nationwide in short order:
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According to opponents of the legislation, by Presidential decree the federal government can now coordinate action through thirteen core federal agencies against any domestic natural gas production facility and according to standards determined to be appropriate not by law, but because of political agenda.

Moreover, because a key stated purpose of the Executive Order is to ensure long-term supplies, the President’s decree gives the federal government the ability to shut down gas production operations as they see fit, potentially leading to government price fixing and centralized control of an essential natural energy resource.

Power Grab for Natural Gas – New Executive Order

The order states, “While natural gas production is carried out by private firms, and States are the primary regulators of onshore oil and gas activities, the Federal Government has an important role to play by regulating oil and gas activities on public and Indian trust lands, encouraging greater use of natural gas in transportation, supporting research and development aimed at improving the safety of natural gas development and transportation activities, and setting sensible, cost-effective public health and environmental standards to implement Federal law and augment State safeguards.”

Because natural gas produced 25 percent of our energy in 2011, the federal government must control this source of energy in order to deliver on the promise of making gasoline prices rise to $10 per gallon, bankrupt the coal industry, and cause energy prices to skyrocket.

An interagency working group is tasked to “facilitate coordinated Administration policy efforts to support safe and responsible unconventional domestic natural gas development.” This working group bureaucracy will be chaired by the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and has several curious members that have no direct involvement with natural gas production:

Chaired by the Director of Domestic Policy, Cecilia Monoz... vice president of la raza being qualified to regulate energy policy by her degree in english and latin american studies and background in civil rights.

Evidently the states are capable of managing their own affairs so we have a power hungre president willing to bypass congress and take over another industry on behalf of the federal government.

Obama's idea of a space agency is skyrocketing energy costs and he is willing to go to any length to insure that energy costs for American citizens do just that, this is only one more example.

 

[RespectTradition]

What did I miss?

Don't we already have a bushel basketful of Fed agencies meddling in this? Doesn't this just establish coordination between various groups? Where does it extend control past where the agencies already are? Shouldn't this actually streamline the rules and coordination part if done correctly?

I can't stand what Obama stands for and what he wants to do in this country, but this just seems like a non-issue. What am I missing?

 

[Danl]

What did I miss?

Sheesh!!!! Did you not see the cartoon? The cartoon with the scary mooselim?

Try to keep up, RT. This serious stuff.

 

[NEO]

What did I miss?

Don't we already have a bushel basketful of Fed agencies meddling in this? Doesn't this just establish coordination between various groups? Where does it extend control past where the agencies already are? Shouldn't this actually streamline the rules and coordination part if done correctly?

I can't stand what Obama stands for and what he wants to do in this country, but this just seems like a non-issue. What am I missing?

I miss America pre 911.

 

[RespectTradition]

Sheesh!!!! Did you not see the cartoon? The cartoon with the scary mooselim?

Try to keep up, RT. This serious stuff.

Am I the only one who likes using up the oil of other people now so that if we have some urgent need later we can use our own and not be reliant on others?

 

[NEO]

Am I the only one who likes using up the oil of other people now so that if we have some urgent need later we can use our own and not be reliant on others?

I doubt we will ever use of all the oil in mooselimbs territories.

And buy the time it gets close, China will probably own our country and it wont matter anymore.

 

[Danl]

Am I the only one who likes using up the oil of other people now so that if we have some urgent need later we can use our own and not be reliant on others?

I hear you.

But am I the only one that thinks that "we", as in those of us not embedded in an oil company, have no oil and never will. I don't believe it makes much difference at all where oil is pumped out of the ground. Price and availability are determined much more by other concerns.

Not bashing oil companies at all. Its just business.

But then again it might all be controlled by big scary cartoon mooselims.

 

[gsvol]

What did I miss?

Maybe it was the part where the board is loaded with environazis just like Obama loaded the TVA board with the same sort who know nothing about what they are doing and make idiotic decisions that have little if anything to do with reality except following their agenda of impeding domestic energy production.

 

[hog88]

It's not only the production (supply of crude) that keeps prices high, that's really just a drop in the bucket. It's the refining capacity and the idiotic blending rules that keep up the pump prices.

I don't think most people realize it's been over 30 years since a refinnery has been built in the USA and with todays EPA regs it would be nearly impossible to get a new one permitted. Big oil loves it, they shut down a few units in the spring for "maintenance" supply of refined product dwindles and the price goes up. They get less operating costs with greater sale price. Big govt and big oil are brother and sister.

 

[gsvol]

Am I the only one who likes using up the oil of other people now so that if we have some urgent need later we can use our own and not be reliant on others?

Your attitude might make sense if you are thinKING four hundred years down the road.

In today's world it's idiotic for several reasons.

One is that a third of our international trade deficit is due to importing oil while we have 200+ years of known reserves we could be using if we never imported another barrel of foreign oil. (plus we are importing largely from countries who would love to see our immediate demise to say the least.)

A country cannot go on forever running trade deficits while fInancing itself of borrowed money unless it wants to see itself eventually become a slave nation.

(some are saying we have already achieved that status, we are certainly close to it but mostly because of reasons few people really understand.)

Same Old Story on Energy Policy [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

As spring blooms, the president addresses the nation on energy. He tells us, “Without our planning for the future, it will get worse…The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy is simply running out.”

Unless profound changes are made in the next decade, the president warns, the world will demand more oil than it can produce. He calls for “strict conservation” and switching to “permanent renewable energy sources like solar power.” Because they promise future energy independence, his administration is spending billions of taxpayer dollars on wind, solar and biodiesel, plus offering massive “clean energy” subsidies.

No, the president is not Barack Obama, and the speech was not delivered in 2012. It was President Jimmy Carter, speaking on April 18, 1977.

Since that time, American oil and natural gas production has skyrocketed. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that natural gas consumption has doubled since 1980, production is at an all-time high, imports are at a 20-year low and heating expenses are the lowest in a decade. Meanwhile, the latest recession barely affected North Dakota, a state rich in oil and natural gas.

President Carter’s speech sounds familiar because it is based on the same flawed assumptions that underlie many current politicians’ belief that wise and enlightened central planners in Washington can manage the countless and infinitely complex transactions and calculations that comprise a $14 trillion dollar national economy.

 

[RespectTradition]

I agree that the government needs to spend less than it takes in.

But...

Something to think about:

in 102 of the 120 months of that most economically depressed decade, the 1930s, the U.S. ran trade surpluses. On an annual basis, America had a trade surplus for nine of the ten years of the 1930s (with 1936 being the only year of a trade deficit). For the whole of that decade, the U.S. ran a significant trade surplus. Exports over those dreary ten years totaled $26.05 billion while imports totaled only $21.13 billion. Clearly, just as a trade deficit is no sign of economic malaise, a trade surplus is no sign of economic vitality.

Reason Foundation - How the New Congress Hurts

Because of the link between trade deficits and rising investment, larger trade deficits are typically accompanied by improving economic conditions. A survey of the U.S. economy since 1973 confirms that, by almost any measure--economic growth, employment, industrial production, poverty reduction--the economy has performed better in years in which the trade deficit rose than in years in which it shrank.

America's Record Trade Deficit: A Symbol of Economic Strength | Daniel Griswold | Cato Institute: Trade Policy Analysis

 

[gsvol]

It's not only the production (supply of crude) that keeps prices high, that's really just a drop in the bucket. It's the refining capacity and the idiotic blending rules that keep up the pump prices.

I don't think most people realize it's been over 30 years since a refinnery has been built in the USA and with todays EPA regs it would be nearly impossible to get a new one permitted. Big oil loves it, they shut down a few units in the spring for "maintenance" supply of refined product dwindles and the price goes up. They get less operating costs with greater sale price. Big govt and big oil are brother and sister.

Good point.

The enviro-nazis have not only prevented modern clean refining facilities being built in America, but with the current enviro-nazi in chief occupying the White House, functioning refining facilities are being shut down because of ever more stringent EPA rules experienced in no other country on Earth.

 

[gsvol]

Harvard Law School will soon offer a class called "Understanding Obama" — while Barnum & Bailey Clown College will offer a class called "Understanding Biden.”

 

[gsvol]

American Thinker- Print Article

The environmental left views the incredible rebirth of the American fossil fuel industry, wrought by unconventional methods (fracking and horizontal drilling), with alarm and disgust. The idea that the United States could easily fulfill all of its energy needs by utilizing its great domestic reserves of fossil fuels arouses their collective anger, and they have been battling this technology via every means at their disposal.

The enviros have run a massive and effective propaganda campaign with documentaries and advertising suggesting that fracking contaminates water supplies and is killing animals and people. They have waged interminable lawsuits at the local, state, and federal level to stop or slow the expansion of the extraction of unconventional oil and gas. And they have used the regulatory agencies -- especially the EPA, Department of the Interior, and Department of the Agriculture -- to halt the use of this technology on private lands and to keep it from expanding onto public hands.

There should be no sniffing at this latter point. The federal government currently owns huge chunks of land, including: 85% of Nevada; 69% of Alaska; 57% of Utah; 53% of Oregon; 50% of Idaho; 45% of California; 42% of Wyoming; 42% of New Mexico; and 37% of Colorado. All of these states are huge repositories of fossil fuel reserves, all crying out for development. But these riches will not ever be developed under this administration.

But the forces of Enlightenment are fighting back against the environmentalist nature-worshipers, and the former are beginning to win some major victories.

Start with the happy news that the EPA has been forced to back off on its aggressive war on fracking. It has withdrawn its lawsuit against Range Resources Corporation wherein, it had alleged that the company was polluting water wells near Fort Worth, Texas...
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Fracking is ecologically safe, helps America achieve energy independence, provides great-paying jobs for blue-collar workers in an era of seemingly endless rates of high unemployment, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions. All of those major advantages are enough to make devout environmentalists oppose it. This is because devout environmentalists usually oppose the flourishing of humanity.

Fracking isn't new btw, it has been used since 1949 and there isn't even one documented case of it causing water polution.

American Thinker- Print Article

Bad stuff always happens on Friday the 13th. So it was on Friday that BrightSource Energy, the large solar energy company that has already received $868 million of a $1.6-billion loan guarantee, canceled its IPO application. And that same day, President Obama appointed Heather Zichal to head a new high-level task force to coordinate regulation of hydraulic fracking. The two events, both highly inauspicious, were not unrelated.

The connection is simple and obvious: in order to prop up failing solar companies, Obama needs to force natural gas prices higher.

Solar energy companies like BrightSource can't seem to compete without government subsidies, loan guarantees, and mandates. Left to their own devices, without a trillion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies, state mandates requiring the purchase of green energy at whatever price, and the support of environmentally active nonprofits, companies like BrightSource might not have gotten off the ground in the first place. One has to assume that the withdrawal of Friday's IPO occurred because private investors were skeptical of the ability of BrightSource to produce a profit. To date, the company has generated only large losses of $71.6 million in 2010 and $111 million in 2011. That might have something to do with the market's skeptical outlook, even though at least one major investor claims that the failed IPO will not affect the company's work on the Ivanpath solar-thermal plant, one of its major projects.

It was not just Friday the 13th for BrightSource -- other solar companies had a rough day in the markets as well. First Solar, whose stock price has fallen over 90% off its peak, fell another 5.4% Friday. Others solar firms dropped as well, with the global market index of solar companies having fallen 74% in the past two years. It would appear that without much larger subsidies and mandates, green energy is going the way of the dodo. Obama would love to be able to write another $100-billion check to green energy, but in the post-Solyndra era, he is unable to do so. That's where regulating fossil fuels out of business comes in.
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More regulation of fracking is sure to shore up Obama's election-year backing by environmental groups. It will help to boost campaign contributions. It may reignite a bit of enthusiasm from younger voters. But it will do a great deal of harm to the American people.

So what? When is the last time Obama expressed concern for the American people? Those are the folks he considers the bigoted ones "clinging to their guns and religion." Those are the ones who caused his wife to never be proud of America until they elected her husband president. Who cares if an unemployment rate above 8% becomes the "new normal"? Who cares if they have to pay more for heating and electricity?

Those will surely be the effects of a nationwide tightening of regulation on fracking. At the same time, by forcing natural gas prices higher, the president's policies are designed to make solar and wind more affordable. Solar and wind cannot compete with natural gas selling at below $2 per mBtu, as it now is. It cannot even compete with gas selling at $4. The only way to stop natural gas from driving solar and wind out of the marketplace -- as is now happening -- is to stop American energy companies from producing cheap gas. Maybe then the American public won't mind paying more for electricity and home heating. Or maybe not.
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The creation of a task force to regulate fracking should be seen for what it is: an unprecedented power-grab at the expense of the nation's states, which have always enjoyed the prerogative of regulating drilling within their borders.

Once again, as with socialized health care and expanded regulation of the financial services industry, Obama is attempting to centralize power within a federal bureaucracy controlled by the president alone and unaccountable to Congress. In other situations where this has happened, in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez or Zimbabwe under Mugabe, it has been understood for what it is: the attempt of an antidemocratic leader to establish a dictatorship.

TransCanada submits new Keystone XL pipeline plan | Fox News

For the first time since President Obama issued a controversial order halting its progress, the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline is once again on track for bureaucratic review after TransCanada submitted a new route through Nebraska designed to avoid environmentally sensitive areas.

The new plan, which TransCanada submitted to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality on Wednesday, takes the Keystone project out of the deep freeze that began in January when Obama agreed with the recommendation of the State Department to reject the initial pipeline application.

This new development, first reported by Fox News, allows Nebraska officials to review the impact of the pipeline's adjusted route. It also opens the door for the pipeline's builder, TransCanada, to submit a new complete proposal covering the entire length of the pipeline to the State Department for its review.