President Obama’s Climate Action Plan
by
Dave Harbour
There is nothing significantly "good" about Obama’s simultaneous attack on American taxpayers, energy consumers and the free market.
His "Climate Action Plan" will lead America away from energy
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Report and Commentary: CANADA. (Draft, subject to edits) In Canada, the environmental community continues a more than 40 year strategy for opposing development. It flowered in the 1970s as various environmental activists, church activists and other liberal allies created a ‘moratorium’ strategy for blocking construction of the original Alaska/Canada natural gas pipeline. Today, the issue du jour is ‘fracking’. In spite of decades of safe use of fracking technology and in spite of a multitude of private, state and federal studies documenting the safety of fracking anti-development groups are still encouraging local communities to stop development. They claim such development will injure the subsistence way of life. Activists tend to shortchange the benefits of jobs and educational opportunites for local people and the detriment to families caused by a continued dependence on government welfare subsidies. Liberal supporters of big government in both countries are wedded to the strategy of demonizing oil and gas energy exploration and development to achieve their goals. Today, we read of a resolution adopted by the Na-cho Nyak Dun First This CBC report, notes that in her re-election address, Grand Chief Ruth Massie (NGP Photo) said, “I pledge to continue to protect our inherent rights, our land, our water, our environment as our ancestors would have wanted…." The report goes on to quote Don Roberts leader of a group called Yukoners Concerned about Oil and Gas Development. “This is a game-changer," he said. "The First Nations are there to protect the land, protect the environment. … The basic issue is water. It takes millions of litres of water to do this process and it poisons the land and it poisons everything around you,” said Roberts.
We do not blame Grand Chief Massie for doing her best to protect her people and their futures. In fact, we know her and have the deepest respect her lifelong commitment to her people.
However, we are very concerned for both the American and Canadian economies (i.e. including those of Alaska Native, Lower 48 Indian and Canadian Aboriginal groups) when irresponsible and innacurate statements like Roberts’ provide the basis for what should be decisions based on experience, history, technology, science, fact and socio-economic impact. -dh
Meanwhile, in the neighboring NWT, the CBC reports that the Sahtu Land and Water Board "…said it has determined this development will not cause a significant adverse environmental impact and that it will not be a cause of public concern, adding the effects of this development would be insignificant or could be mitigated with known technology." Board spokesman Paul Dixon complimented ConocoPhillips for doing, "…an excellent job on speaking to the community organizations, other regulators, government and non-government for the development of this project….” |
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Nation, advocating a fracking prohibition.independence, further disable the economy, destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs and diminish our national security without providing any meaningful environmental improvement. The President’s initiative is not a ‘War on Coal’ as some have called it; so much as it is a war on consumer jobs, consumers of energy and the taxpayer consumers who will pay the tab for this disastrous policy.
Created out of thin air, many of Obama’s policies — including this one — evade Congressional policy and budget oversight by issuance of American-style fatāwā taking the form of Executive Orders and Executive Memoranda.
Last week, amid a growing litany of scandals, seemed the perfect time to ‘change the subject’. The new ‘shiny object‘ to divert citizen attention was the Administration’s dedication to using "climate change science" as a basis for increasing government controls over citizen behavior. The President’s Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Cecilia Muñoz, defended the new policy with a satement that began with: "Hi, everybody. This week the President unveiled the national Climate Action Plan which will reduce carbon pollution and protect our country from the impacts of climate change, and lead the world in a coordinated assault on a changing climate. Carbon pollution contributes to a higher risk of asthma attacks, which disproportionately affects the Latino community according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Carbon pollution also contributes to more frequent and severe storms, floods, heat waves, and wildfires, driving up food prices and threatening our communities…."
Combine this ‘Climate Change" initiative with roadblocks to leasing/permitting on federal, private, state and Native lands; the uncontrolled, pervasive abuses of the EPA; the White House effort to zone the oceans and rivers leading to them; and, countless other constrictive and cancerous regulatory practices and one finds little reason for confidence or faith in America’s now redefined "rule of law" or a truly recovered American economy.
NATIONAL
Shale Gas, Gasland, and Truthiness. Forbes, Column. It would be easy to dismiss Josh Fox as being on a par with Ancient Alien theory proponents, whose logic systems he most clearly resembles, but astonishingly, he continues to be embraced by many activists, including celebrities such as Alec Baldwin and Yoko Ono. Criticisms are often met with ad hominem attacks and cries of conspiracy, which now seems to include most environmental regulators, who can’t validate his claims.
Shale Gas, Gasland, and Truthiness. Forbes, Column. It would be easy to dismiss Josh Fox as being on a par with Ancient Alien theory proponents, whose logic systems he most clearly resembles, but astonishingly, he continues to be embraced by many activists, including celebrities such as Alec Baldwin and Yoko Ono. Criticisms are often met with ad hominem attacks and cries of conspiracy, which now seems to include most environmental regulators, who can’t validate his claims.
WH advisor: Shale gives U.S. “stronger hand” in pursuing security goals. Wall Street Journal. The increasing U.S. energy supply "helps reduce our vulnerability to global supply disruptions and price shocks" and thus "affords us a stronger hand in pursuing and implementing our international security goals," Tom Donilon, the White House national-security adviser until recently, said in April. Exhibit A: Washington’s success last year in pushing through tough new economic sanctions against Iran to blunt its nuclear ambitions.
Sorry Josh. You Actually Show Hydraulic Fracturing Is Safe. Real Clear Energy, Thomas Pyle. Unlike Fox, when I write that there are no confirmed cases of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing, I can provide support for the claim. For example, President Obama’s leading environmental regulator, former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, testified under oath to a House committee that she was “not aware of any proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.” Jackson also told reporters “in no case have we made a definitive determination that the
[fracturing] process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater.” Lisa Jackson, the darling of the environmental community, certainly has no incentive to repeat the so-called “big lie” before Congress or to the media.
Shale oil will shake the world. The Times, Column (sub req’d). Exciting as Britain’s latest shale gas estimate is — 47 years’ supply or more — it pales beside what is happening in the United States. There shale gas is old hat; the shale oil revolution is proving a world changer, promising not just lower oil prices worldwide, but geopolitical ripples as America weans itself off oil imports and perhaps loses interest in the Middle East.
Marcellus Brings Major Growth to Pennsylvania. CNBC. Many people know the City of Williamsport, located in Lycoming County, as the site of the Little League World Series, but gas production helped make it the seventh fastest-growing community on a percentage basis in the U.S. And while that growth appears to be leveling off, the region looks set to ride out the boom for as long as the gas remains economic to produce.
Landowners threaten suit over DRBC moratorium. E&E News (sub req’d). "The Commission’s inaction has brought natural gas exploration in the basin to a complete halt to the detriment of the local economy and the citizens who in good faith leased their land for gas exploration and development," Bob Rutledge, executive director of the landowners group, wrote in the letter to Carol Collier, executive director of the commission.
Josh Fox Very Secretive About His Sauce Recipe. New York Magazine, Q&A. Gasland, Part II, the the follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Gasland, premieres on HBO on Monday, July 8, at 9 p.m..
EPA’s abandoned Wyoming HF study one retreat of many. ProPublica. The EPA says that the string of decisions is not related, and the Pavillion matter will be resolved more quickly by state officials. The agency has maintained publicly that it remains committed to an ongoing national study of hydraulic fracturing, which it says will draw the definitive line on fracking’s risks to water.
‘Gasland Part II’: TV review. New York Daily News, Review. Josh Fox sounds personally soft-spoken, which probably makes it more effective when his film “Gasland Part II” turns into a cinematic primal scream.
INTERNATIONAL
Can we afford to ignore shale gas? Peterborough Telegraph, Column. There is, however an answer – lying hundreds of feet beneath Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire – after a survey found enough shale gas to power Britain for half a century. Some experts think this is just the start. Even if just 10% is extracted, that will be worth billions of pounds in today’s money and could potentially solve our energy problems for future generations.
Repsol Delays First Shale – Gas Project in Spain After HF Ban. Bloomberg. Repsol SA (REP), Spain’s largest oil producer, delayed starting to explore for shale gas in the north, where a local government has outlawed drilling projects that use water-intensive hydraulic fracturing.
Producers eye Canada’s new Duvernay shale play ; investment set. Platts. Producers in Alberta’s liquids-rich shale play at Duvernay are likely to invest some C$1 billion ($955 million) in drilling activities over the remaining six
Shale oil will shake the world. The Times, Column (sub req’d). Exciting as Britain’s latest shale gas estimate is — 47 years’ supply or more — it pales beside what is happening in the United States. There shale gas is old hat; the shale oil revolution is proving a world changer, promising not just lower oil prices worldwide, but geopolitical ripples as America weans itself off oil imports and perhaps loses interest in the Middle East.
Marcellus Brings Major Growth to Pennsylvania. CNBC. Many people know the City of Williamsport, located in Lycoming County, as the site of the Little League World Series, but gas production helped make it the seventh fastest-growing community on a percentage basis in the U.S. And while that growth appears to be leveling off, the region looks set to ride out the boom for as long as the gas remains economic to produce.
Landowners threaten suit over DRBC moratorium. E&E News (sub req’d). "The Commission’s inaction has brought natural gas exploration in the basin to a complete halt to the detriment of the local economy and the citizens who in good faith leased their land for gas exploration and development," Bob Rutledge, executive director of the landowners group, wrote in the letter to Carol Collier, executive director of the commission.
Josh Fox Very Secretive About His Sauce Recipe. New York Magazine, Q&A. Gasland, Part II, the the follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Gasland, premieres on HBO on Monday, July 8, at 9 p.m..
EPA’s abandoned Wyoming HF study one retreat of many. ProPublica. The EPA says that the string of decisions is not related, and the Pavillion matter will be resolved more quickly by state officials. The agency has maintained publicly that it remains committed to an ongoing national study of hydraulic fracturing, which it says will draw the definitive line on fracking’s risks to water.
‘Gasland Part II’: TV review. New York Daily News, Review. Josh Fox sounds personally soft-spoken, which probably makes it more effective when his film “Gasland Part II” turns into a cinematic primal scream.
INTERNATIONAL
Can we afford to ignore shale gas? Peterborough Telegraph, Column. There is, however an answer – lying hundreds of feet beneath Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire – after a survey found enough shale gas to power Britain for half a century. Some experts think this is just the start. Even if just 10% is extracted, that will be worth billions of pounds in today’s money and could potentially solve our energy problems for future generations.
Repsol Delays First Shale – Gas Project in Spain After HF Ban. Bloomberg. Repsol SA (REP), Spain’s largest oil producer, delayed starting to explore for shale gas in the north, where a local government has outlawed drilling projects that use water-intensive hydraulic fracturing.
Producers eye Canada’s new Duvernay shale play ; investment set. Platts. Producers in Alberta’s liquids-rich shale play at Duvernay are likely to invest some C$1 billion ($955 million) in drilling activities over the remaining six
months of 2013, with that figure likely to rise further next year, oil and gas consultancy Peters and Company said in a report Thursday.
The shale-gas revolution unnerves Russian state capitalism. The Economist. A spectre is haunting Russia: the spectre of shale gas. It is seeping into the salons of power, discomfiting Russia’s leaders and their bizniz cronies. Energy companies account for half of the value of the Russian stockmarket, and a single, state-backed firm, Gazprom, produces 10% of the country’s exports.
Cuadrilla seeks to expand shale exploration work. Utility Week. The company said it is intending to apply planning consent to drill, hydraulically fracture (fracking), and test the gas flow at six temporary sites in the Fylde.
Shale Backers Sought Scalp, Fired French Energy Minister Says. Bloomberg. Batho, who held both the energy and environment portfolios, was fired by President Francois Hollande earlier this week after calling his 2014 spending plans “bad” because they cut her department’s funds by about 7 percent.
COLORADO
Clarity on health care and HF. Denver Post, Editorial. There is nothing sinister or unusual about secrecy for intellectual property. Federal law provides similar protections for various industries, while allowing exceptions for health professionals who need the information to do their job. Colorado provided an exception for health professionals, too, with doctors required simply to fill out a confidentiality pledge known as Form 35.
NORTH CAROLINA
Senate Passes Rule On HF Fluid. WFAE News. The Senate has passed requirements for what gas companies must reveal about the chemical mix they pump into ground during hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
NORTHEAST
HF opposition stepped up in NE. Boston Globe. Industry officials say there’s little chance of fracking taking place in New England, but some environmentalists and politicians say they’re taking no chances. Vermont recently became the first and only state to prohibit fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, and similar legislation has come under consideration in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut.
Schneider National adding 60 Pa. jobs to serve HF sites. Business Journal of Milwaukee. Schneider National Inc. will add 60 oilfield truck drivers in Pennsylvania to support its new business that is taking advantage of the U.S. oil and natural gas boom spurred by hydraulic fracturing.
Arguing Against Outright Ban In National Park. Associated Press. Environmental groups are fearful that a new blueprint for the 1.1-million-acre George Washington National Forest will open the largest federally protected forest in the East to a form of natural gas drilling that has spawned its own environmental movement.
Our energy future. Press & Sun-Bulletin, Op-Ed. In a recent Guest Viewpoint, Robert Williams argues that we should rely on shale gas extraction and renewables to satisfy our energy needs and continue to bolster the economy.
What happens when a green college considers HF? Washington Observer Reporter. Now, the school touted in the Princeton Review’s guide to green colleges as a leader of environmental friendliness, is talking about leasing land for fracking, the horizontal drilling technique used to get gas from shale.
Drilling costs get speedier write-off. Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Both Mr. Potter and the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group that represents operators in the region, say this issue is one for the small guys — the individual investors, or small pass-through companies. Those smaller operators are not the driving force behind the development of the Marcellus Shale, whose wells run, on average, $5 million a pop.
OHIO
Magnum Hunter Multi-Well Pad to Target Utica, Marcellus. NGI’s Shale Daily (sub req’d). A multi-pad drilling project to test Marcellus and Utica formations in southern Ohio may answer some of the lingering questions about the real resource potential of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, an analyst said Tuesday.
TEXAS
Texas Rises. American Thinker, Column. The gift of fracking has created vast new oil supplies, capable of making America energy independent in a few years, creating millions of jobs, powering economic growth, and crippling the power of OPEC and the Islamic oil producers.
Chesapeake Energy sells Texas, Louisiana acreage for $1B. The Oklahoman. EXCO will pay $680 million for about 55,000 acres in south Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale and $320 million for about 9,600 acres in Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale.
WYOMING
The shale-gas revolution unnerves Russian state capitalism. The Economist. A spectre is haunting Russia: the spectre of shale gas. It is seeping into the salons of power, discomfiting Russia’s leaders and their bizniz cronies. Energy companies account for half of the value of the Russian stockmarket, and a single, state-backed firm, Gazprom, produces 10% of the country’s exports.
Cuadrilla seeks to expand shale exploration work. Utility Week. The company said it is intending to apply planning consent to drill, hydraulically fracture (fracking), and test the gas flow at six temporary sites in the Fylde.
Shale Backers Sought Scalp, Fired French Energy Minister Says. Bloomberg. Batho, who held both the energy and environment portfolios, was fired by President Francois Hollande earlier this week after calling his 2014 spending plans “bad” because they cut her department’s funds by about 7 percent.
COLORADO
Clarity on health care and HF. Denver Post, Editorial. There is nothing sinister or unusual about secrecy for intellectual property. Federal law provides similar protections for various industries, while allowing exceptions for health professionals who need the information to do their job. Colorado provided an exception for health professionals, too, with doctors required simply to fill out a confidentiality pledge known as Form 35.
NORTH CAROLINA
Senate Passes Rule On HF Fluid. WFAE News. The Senate has passed requirements for what gas companies must reveal about the chemical mix they pump into ground during hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
NORTHEAST
HF opposition stepped up in NE. Boston Globe. Industry officials say there’s little chance of fracking taking place in New England, but some environmentalists and politicians say they’re taking no chances. Vermont recently became the first and only state to prohibit fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, and similar legislation has come under consideration in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut.
Schneider National adding 60 Pa. jobs to serve HF sites. Business Journal of Milwaukee. Schneider National Inc. will add 60 oilfield truck drivers in Pennsylvania to support its new business that is taking advantage of the U.S. oil and natural gas boom spurred by hydraulic fracturing.
Arguing Against Outright Ban In National Park. Associated Press. Environmental groups are fearful that a new blueprint for the 1.1-million-acre George Washington National Forest will open the largest federally protected forest in the East to a form of natural gas drilling that has spawned its own environmental movement.
Our energy future. Press & Sun-Bulletin, Op-Ed. In a recent Guest Viewpoint, Robert Williams argues that we should rely on shale gas extraction and renewables to satisfy our energy needs and continue to bolster the economy.
What happens when a green college considers HF? Washington Observer Reporter. Now, the school touted in the Princeton Review’s guide to green colleges as a leader of environmental friendliness, is talking about leasing land for fracking, the horizontal drilling technique used to get gas from shale.
Drilling costs get speedier write-off. Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Both Mr. Potter and the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group that represents operators in the region, say this issue is one for the small guys — the individual investors, or small pass-through companies. Those smaller operators are not the driving force behind the development of the Marcellus Shale, whose wells run, on average, $5 million a pop.
OHIO
Magnum Hunter Multi-Well Pad to Target Utica, Marcellus. NGI’s Shale Daily (sub req’d). A multi-pad drilling project to test Marcellus and Utica formations in southern Ohio may answer some of the lingering questions about the real resource potential of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, an analyst said Tuesday.
TEXAS
Texas Rises. American Thinker, Column. The gift of fracking has created vast new oil supplies, capable of making America energy independent in a few years, creating millions of jobs, powering economic growth, and crippling the power of OPEC and the Islamic oil producers.
Chesapeake Energy sells Texas, Louisiana acreage for $1B. The Oklahoman. EXCO will pay $680 million for about 55,000 acres in south Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale and $320 million for about 9,600 acres in Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale.
WYOMING
HF sand delivery big business in Wyoming. Casper Star-Tribune. The trucks carried the sand off to every corner of the state — or in some cases to energy fields in Utah and North Dakota — where it would be used as a key ingredient in hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to produce oil and natural gas.
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