Since the Democrats were unable to force unpopular and expensive cap and trade legislation down our throats, it is using its regulatory muscle to advance their agenda. In regards to natural gas, it is placing burdensome restrictions on hydraulic fracturing, a method that extracts gas from deep rock formations.
Forbes has chilly news for American consumers:
EPA is supposed to deny or accept permits for new facilities within one year. But the agency cannot even meet this timeline under its existing regulatory code. Currently, the average wait time for businesses is longer than two years. If EPA’s greenhouse gas requirements take effect, many companies that have already invested months or years in this bureaucratic limbo will have to go back and start again with a new permit including the new rule. Given the existing and projected backlog, it’s little wonder analysts estimate EPA’s greenhouse gasses regulation will cost more than 7.3 million jobs by 2020.The American Thinker has more on this subject.
Acting as if they were anointed rather than appointed, unaccountable regulators continue to punish domestic energy consumers and providers while sidelining billions in investment. The natural follow up question becomes what are all of these added costs buying the public? Not much.
For more than six decades, gas companies have been using advanced technologies to hydraulically fracture and safely procure natural gas from up to two miles beneath the surface of the earth. In fact, more than 100,000 successfully drilled wells are fractured across the world annually under existing industry and government oversight.
Instead of brainstorming blanket regulations behind closed doors, federal regulators should actively be encouraging engineers and entities at the state level to study and consider means for ensuring best industry practices.
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