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Regulation: The Energy Department wants to find ways to make hydraulic fracturing, a fast-growing method of extracting natural gas, safer and cleaner. Say, isn't that how the administration justified its offshore drilling ban?
We're from the government, and we're here to help you drill safely. That was the canard thrown out by President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar when they announced the ban on offshore drilling following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill.
Since then the drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico has collapsed and output has dropped. Although the ban was ostensibly lifted, it has been replaced by a new permit system that is so slow that rigs have left the Gulf for foreign shores. At least one drilling company has filed for bankruptcy.
The safety mantra was raised once again last Thursday when Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the appointment of a seven-member panel to study hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "fracking," and come up with new safety standards that address concerns raised by environmentalists.
The process involves the injection under high pressure of fluids, mainly water with a few chemicals added, to fracture the porous shale rock found in huge formations in the northeast and Rocky Mountain West and get at the oil and gas trapped inside the porous rock.
Environmentalists contend these chemical additives contaminate ground water supplies.
"America's vast natural gas resources can generate many new jobs and provide significant environmental benefits," Chu said. "But we need to ensure we harness these resources safely." It was a similar "but" that led the Obama administration to impose a seven-year ban on offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, off both coasts and in the energy-rich Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska.
The new panel includes such friends of domestic energy as Kathleen McGinty, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and an aide to Al Gore when he was a senator, and Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund.
It was a similar panel created by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar after the Deepwater Horizon blowout that led to the current moratoria on off shore drilling.
But so committed is this administration in its opposition to fossil fuel extraction, except in Brazil, that it had to doctor that panel's evaluations to make it seem they endorsed the drilling ban when they did not.
The administration was even found in contempt of court for trying to reinstate its moratorium after a judge issued an injunction on the grounds that the moratorium was too broad in its scope and totally unjustified based on the available evidence.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman argued Salazar's original Gulf drilling moratorium was based on flawed reasoning.
"If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?" Feldman asked. "That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."
We think so too.
We believe the safety issue is a cover for the Obama administration's ideologically driven animus toward fossil fuels and its deliberate campaign to raise energy prices — and thereby to make its favored "green" alternatives look more competitive and attractive.
Subsidies: This week, Amtrak marks its 40th anniversary, which means that for decades it's wasted tens of billions of tax dollars. Naturally, Washington wants to reward this with billions more under the guise of "high-speed" rail. To say that Amtrak is a failed business is to be unkind to ...
Islamofascism: For all the focus on the world's hellholes, the rage in London over Osama bin Laden's demise signals that is where the worst fanatics are gaining strength. The U.K.'s soft socialism amounts to a petri dish for terrorism. Following the U.S. Navy SEALs' spectacular strike on ...
Malaise: Reports from New York City say that union work rules pertaining the rebuilding of Ground Zero are going to cost taxpayers an extra $96 million. But that's only a small part of the sordid story. The New York Daily News reported Sunday that, according to the Real Estate Board of New ...
War On Terror: As drone-fired missiles rain down on Pakistan's remote tribal area, more high-value targets are turning up in its cities. The hunt for bin Laden should shift accordingly. This week an al-Qaida leader, Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam, was nabbed in Karachi (initial reports confused ...
'The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line," W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1903 — and I will not quibble. But the problem of the 21st century is the problem of culture, not just the infamous "culture of poverty" but what I would call the culture of smugness. The emblem of ...
Posted By: ohgary(600) on 5/10/2011 | 2:36 AM ET
The Salem witch trials stopped when somebody accused the Governor's wife. The Red Scare ended with the humiliation of Joe McCarthy. There will be a tipping point where even the densest voter senses that the war on the oil industry is wrong. Maybe high gasoline prices will be it.
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Posted By: Not doomed(290) on 5/10/2011 | 1:16 AM ET
Billions are propping up "The Green Energy". Oil is literally pennies on the dollar compared to ethanol and all the other alternative fuels. These may be useful in the future, but for now the governments either/or attitude is nothing but political power grabbing, arrogance! When is The House or Legislative branch going to call the Executive branch on its total disregard for the law. America is not a third world country. We just happen to have a third world leader as President.
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Posted By: Judith from Michigan(3985) on 5/9/2011 | 11:18 PM ET
Fossil fuel opponents give reasons that are political & not sound logic based on facts. If FF are so dangerous, then they must demand China, Venezuela, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Scandinavia, etc also halt FF extraction. And insist the hundreds of consumer products made from FF be banished. Or is the banishment meant only for the US? This admin is playing a dangerous game with America's future. Windmills & solar panels do not drive the world's economy. Fossil fuels do, like it or no
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Posted By: Fargo Vortac(1155) on 5/9/2011 | 10:46 PM ET
... The simple fact is that these "renewables" are not yet mature tech. While they have their uses (e.g.- I use solar to illuminate my flag at night) they are far from a replacement for petroleum products. So, enviros, drive your Chevy Volt (using coal-generated electricity) but be honest with yourself that your subsidized, "clean" car is just another way to kid yourself that you're helping "save the planet."
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Posted By: Fargo Vortac(1155) on 5/9/2011 | 10:42 PM ET
@Conscientious Investor -- I take it that, when you invest, you are simply going to turn your wealth over to your chosen corporations/companies/ventures, being as you seem to think 'profit' is a bad thing... The government (i.e.- Taxpayers!) heavily subsidized the production of ethanol, which destroys.."our water resources, air quality, and food sources..." Ethanol is a terrible waste of food and our resources, is bad for engines and is less energy-dense than petrol. (cont'
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