Regulations – Page 9 – CFACT

Obama Administration kicks the oil-and-gas industry while it is down

Just as the glut of oil on the world market has prompted Saudi Arabia to pump out even more oil at cheap prices (for up to 5 years, the Saudis say -- as long as it takes to crush the U.S. shale industry -- the Obama Administration wants to impose harsh new resrictions on oil and gas companies. A better recipe could not be found for decimating the U.S. economy, killing jobs, and ceding control over world oil prices and demand to the Saudis and their OPEC cronies.

By Marita Noon |2015-01-09T23:02:44-05:00January 5th, 2015|4 Comments

New EPA ozone rules could shutter businesses

Once again, the EPA is emerging as a chief jobs killer for the Obama Administration (which apparently wants most Americans unemployed and dependent upon government for their very existence). The proposed new ground-level ozone standard -- whether it is 60, 65, or even 70 parts per billion, will kill jobs, weaken our national and local economies -- and increase the power of the Executive Branch to rule as a dictatorship.

By Larry Bell |2015-01-05T18:29:15-05:00January 5th, 2015|1 Comment

Free markets fuel the American dream

A place where exceptionalism is celebrated and rewarded; where reliance upon risk-willing entrepreneurs with good free market ideas — not government — drives progress; and where unparalleled life-enriching opportunities exist for those willing to earn them.

By Larry Bell |2015-01-03T10:29:14-05:00January 2nd, 2015|1 Comment

Ethanol policy reform–the rare place where environmentalists and energy advocates agree

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a bad joke that is costing American businesses money and trouble over a fuel -- cellulosic ethanol -- that is perhaps decades away from marketability. A coalition is building to eliminate this costly, even damaging, mandate that the EPA is eagerly enforcing despite issuing its rules after the fact and pressing for engine-damaging ethanol limits of up to 15% at a time when gasoline prices are dropping and U.S. production of gasoline is peaking. CFACT advisor Marita Noon says it is time to reform, revise, or repeal the RFS.

By Marita Noon |2014-12-30T11:00:14-05:00December 30th, 2014|1 Comment

Spending bill brings relief to rural America

While the so-called "Cromnibus" spending bill has its detractors on both sides of the political aisle, the devil is always in the details. And this bill, for the first time in years, did contain some items that will lead to cheering in rural and western America (and by right-minded people all over). Among them: the EPA is barred from cutting dairy CO2 emissions and from regulating farm ponds under navigable water legislation, and neither the greater sage grouse or its smaller cousin, the Gunnison sage grouse, can be officially listed as endangered until more studies are undertaken.

By Larry Bell |2014-12-22T14:11:33-05:00December 22nd, 2014|1 Comment

Special interests influence costly EPA regulations

The EPA has entered into more than 60 sue-and-settle agreements in just the last 4 years -- as part of a widespread collusion with radical environmentalist groups who use this back-door process to avoid public scrutiny of their confiscatory plans until it is too late for the public, let alone lawmakers, to intervene to find a better solution to the alleged problems being addressed through such lawsuits. It is time to stop this incestuous relationship between federal employees and their once and future colleagues who currently work for radical environmental groups.

By Larry Bell |2014-12-20T00:02:11-05:00December 20th, 2014|Comments Off

How Obama and his environmental base are planning to eradicate the oil and gas industry

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee minority (soon to be majority) staff has just released a report, “Setting the Record Straight: Hydraulic Fracturing and America’s Energy Revolution,” which shows how President Obama is coordinating with far-left environmental activists such as the aggressive NRDC and the Sierra Club, along with their millionaire board members, their Hollywood celebrity boosters and their “philanthropic” funders, such as the rabidly anti-fracking Park Foundation, to wage an all-out assault to shut down domestic production of American oil and natural gas. There is hope that this agenda can be derailed in part by the incoming GOP Senate majority and a unified House of Representatives, but the President and his minions will continue their regulatory assault as long as they have the power to thwart the will of Congress and the people.

By Ron Arnold |2014-12-14T20:22:30-05:00December 14th, 2014|4 Comments

The EPA’s man-made cooling crisis

The United States is likely to see brownouts and blackouts thanks to the shuttering of coal-fired power plants (and who knows, maybe even gas-fired plants) that are part of an Obama Administration effort to depower the nation to satisfy environmental extremists and to satisfy his own desire to diminish the role of the United States in world affairs. The EPA is his tool of choice (along with other federal agencies whose policies rarely are blocked by either elected officials or the courts). And as the supply of electricity dwindles, the price of power will rise dramatically, with the greatest negative impacts on the poor, the elderly, and the disabled.

By Larry Bell |2014-12-09T10:52:26-05:00December 9th, 2014|Comments Off

Welcome to the O-zone—where economic development is a zero-sum game

Included in the Obama Administration's "Unified Agenda" for 2015 are new, job-killing standards for ground-level ozone that are the product of a friendly lawsuit from the Sierra Club. These rules the President put on hold in 2011 in an effort to reduce “regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover" -- or maybe for fear they would harm his reelection chances in 2012. The new regulations will mean that, depending on the final rule, 76% to 96% of the country—including some national parks where the natural background levels for ozone are 65 to 67 parts per billion—will be out of compliance. This will deal a crushing blow to U.S. economic recovery -- and the Sierra Club and the President know and heartily approve of this tragic outcome.

By Marita Noon |2014-12-09T10:01:23-05:00December 9th, 2014|4 Comments

The Environmental Protection-racket Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency has just proposed new regulations for ground-level ozone that are lower in many cases than natural ozone levels. They base this proposal on a discredited study by one scientist from California whose work has been severely criticized, and their "benefits" analysis excludes all costs of imposing the regulations, which would be the most expensive in American history. A 2010 Manufacturers' Alliance/MAPI study calculated that a 60 ppb standard would render 85% to 95% of U.S. counties out of compliance, cost the economy $1 trillion per year, and kill 7.3 million jobs by 2020. CFACT's Paul Driessen says that the new Congress should rein in the EPA using the principle: No data and no integrity result in no regulation and no taxpayer money to impose it.

By Paul Driessen |2014-12-05T09:33:52-05:00December 5th, 2014|Comments Off

Time for tough love on tax credits for the mature wind industry

A year after the Congress allowed the wind power production tax credit to expire, the American Wind Energy Association is making a last-ditch effort to renew the PTC, which apparently is necessary for its survival. Moreover, the conditions that fostered the creation of this tax credit -- fears of dependence on foreign oil -- have long since passed, thanks to the fracking revolution. As CFACT analyst Marita Noon says, it is time for the wind industry to grow up.

By Marita Noon |2014-12-01T14:23:36-05:00December 1st, 2014|Comments Off

Six energy policy changes to watch for in a Republican-controlled Congress

CFACT advisor Marita Noon suggests six major areas of confrontation and change now the the Republican Party controls both the House and Senate: the long-awaited (and perhaps too late) approval for the Keystone XL pipeline; a major expansion of oil and gas and minerals development on federal lands; lifting the current ban on U.S. oil and gas exports; reining in the EPA's power, especially as it applies to the proposed Clean Power Plan and the expanded Waters of the United States regulations; major reforms to the Endangered Species Act that would turn landowners from enemies to protectors of threatened and endangered species; and an end to climate alarmism as official U.S. Congress policy. Nearly all of these changes are expected to be vigorously fought by President Obama and the White House.

By Marita Noon |2014-11-17T15:28:17-05:00November 17th, 2014|2 Comments

Congress’ job: “Reins” in the runaway EPA

Now that he no longer has to face the public, President Obama may soon unleash a torrent of radical executive orders with far-reaching consequences, but his regulatory bodies are advancing an all-out war on the U.S. oil and gas industry that can only be curtailed through Congressional action (at least for now). The chief problem is that the EPA's regulations constitute “s power without accountability — a useful formula politically but an abysmal one for policy-making." The REINS Act would end this shell game.”

By Larry Bell |2014-11-10T19:44:42-05:00November 10th, 2014|1 Comment

Obama’s regional climate hubs take aim at farmers, ranchers, forest landowners

Do not for a moment believe that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is setting up these "Climate Hubs" to assist farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, says CFAC Advisor Bonner Cohen. The goal is to force these hard-working Americans into compliance with federal mandates on climate change -- which will surely include new restrictions on their use of water, livestock feed, fertilizers, livestock management techniques, and who knows what all else that violate every principle of real land management ever established through the test of time. If they succeed in this, we should fear for our food supply.

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. |2014-11-03T12:38:16-05:00November 3rd, 2014|8 Comments

WOTUS comes to Louisiana, and it’s coming soon to you

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flexed muscles it may not yet have the right to use in declaring a Louisiana property to be a wetland. Worse, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Corps' latest victim their day in court. But the Pacific Legal Foundation has petitioned the Supreme Court. claiming abuse of the Clean Water Act. Even if the PLF beats the Corps in court, the victory will be pyrrhic if the EPA is allowed to promulgate its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which is due to take effect at the end of 2015 if not withdrawn or dramatically restructured.

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. |2014-11-03T12:05:26-05:00November 3rd, 2014|Comments Off