Preventing America's Energy Train Wreck

Unfortunately, sometimes the most important news doesn’t always make the headlines it should. While Osama bin Laden may have contemplated attacking America’s train system before his demise, the Obama administration, particularly the E.P.A., have been orchestrating a train wreck of a different sort – one that would actually have devastating consequences for the well being of Americans over a far longer period of time.

That’s in no way intended to make light of terrorism; but to highlight the critical importance of a battle playing out in Washington, as well as in many states. One can talk GDP, Consumer Price Indexes and the National Debt all they want, but without an adequate, affordable source of energy for the future, our American economy will never again be able to perform the way it could and should. Such a disastrous shortcoming is precisely what many of Obama’s policies will bring about.

As the Heritage Foundation points out, it was one year ago today that Obama imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Sen. David Vitter (D-La.) has introduced a few different bills to push back against the job and economy destroying policies of the Obama administration.

One year ago today President Obama imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It banned shallow-water and deepwater operations, setting the stage for a year of delays in permitting. Now a U.S. senator wants to put a moratorium on federal agencies. Sen. David Vitter (D-La.), an outspoken critic of the administration’s anti-drilling policies, introduced the Agency Overreach Moratorium Act, which would require congressional approval for federal regulations that restrict energy exploration on federal lands and offshore.

Meanwhile, this Republican Study Group document addresses the EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck. It’s concise, read it all to understand the various assaults the EPA has launched on energy production in America. Meanwhile, this important battle is not only being fought in Washington.

With unemployment near nine percent and high energy prices, a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to stop EPA’s backdoor energy tax. Similarly, a bipartisan group of 61 Senators voted to end or roll back EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Although these votes are strong signals that Congress disapproves of President Obama’s energy agenda, the backdoor energy tax is still being carried out by EPA and is only the beginning of EPA’s regulatory train wreck that will increase energy prices, destroy jobs, and slow economic growth.

Approximately 20 states have enacted resolutions condemning the EPA’s Regulatory train wreck. There’s more information on that effort here via ALEC. Also, in some ways, the Coal Mine is the canary in this case, as the Obama administration moves to do precisely what, back in the 2008 campaign, Joe Biden unintentionally let slip what it always intended to do, all but put an end to coal mining in America. If you recall, that was captured on video.

EPA’s Regulatory Train Wreck: Strategies for State Legislators outlines the costs of these major EPA rules, tells the true story of America’s modern clean air and water successes, and outlines best practices for state legislators (including following the many states that are considering resolutions in 2011 to call for Congress to slow and stop this regulatory onslaught).

More on the mining issue via NMA. We can talk banking and finance policy all day long; without a prudent energy policy to fuel growth in business, jobs and the economy today, not in 20 years based upon what some government bureacrat thinks might work out one day, employment, income, productivity and the free market will continue to sputter, choke and partly die in America for some time to come. Until the American people wake up and come to appreciate how critical are these battles, especially as regards an over-reaching EPA, we will all suffer and pay for it in one way, or another and America’s true might, private sector growth, will only continue to languish on the vine.

“The deliberate and disruptive policies that have slowed and stopped coal mines from receiving permits to open or expand have consequences that reverberate throughout the region. The consequences begin with the coal supply chain and spread to those that benefit from low-cost coal energy,” National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn told the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment in testimony today on the subcommittee’s inquiry into “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs.”