Posted on 04/14/2012 12:43:04 PM PDT by taildragger
President Obama has issued an Executive Order establishing an interagency working group to coordinate Administration policy efforts to support “safe and responsible” development of unconventional domestic natural gas and associated infrastructure. This would include coordination of policies on fracking.
(Excerpt) Read more at greencarcongress.com ...
For these reasons, it is vital that we take full advantage of our natural gas resources, while giving American families and communities confidence that natural and cultural resources, air and water quality, and public health and safety will not be compromised.
While natural gas production is carried out by private firms, and States are the primary regulators of onshore oil and gas activities, the Federal Government has an important role to play by regulating oil and gas activities on public and Indian trust lands, encouraging greater use of natural gas in transportation, supporting research and development aimed at improving the safety of natural gas development and transportation activities, and setting sensible, cost-effective public health and environmental standards to implement Federal law and augment State safeguards.
Because efforts to promote safe, responsible, and efficient development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources are underway at a number of executive departments and agencies (agencies), close interagency coordination is important for effective implementation of these programs and activities. To formalize and promote ongoing interagency coordination, this order establishes a high-level, interagency working group that will facilitate coordinated Administration policy efforts to support safe and responsible unconventional domestic natural gas development. —Executive Order
The Interagency Working Group to Support Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources will be chaired by the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, or a designated representative. In addition to the Chair, the Working Group will include deputy-level representatives or equivalent officials, designated by the head of the respective agency or office, from:
the Department of Defense; the Department of the Interior; the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Commerce; the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Transportation; the Department of Energy; the Department of Homeland Security; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Council on Environmental Quality; the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Office of Management and Budget; the National Economic Council; and other agencies or offices as the Chair may invite to participate.
The Working Group is to perform the following functions:
coordinate agency policy activities, ensuring their efficient and effective operation and facilitating cooperation among agencies, as appropriate;
coordinate among agencies the sharing of scientific, environmental, and related technical and economic information;
engage in long-term planning and ensure coordination among the appropriate Federal entities with respect to such issues as research, natural resource assessment, and the development of infrastructure;
promote interagency communication with stakeholders; and
consult with other agencies and offices as appropriate.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) issued a statement welcoming the move to coordinate reviews and policy.
Tell me how this is good?
Is this another power grab before 11/12 to have more power if re-elected or muck it up for Romney?
How does one "undo" all he would have done?
How does this not stop "Fracking" in it's tracks?
What authority does he have to interfere like this?
Executive Orders pertain only to the operation of the Executive Branch, NOT to Industry or States!
How is this breaking news?
Easy, just declare him "ineligible." Then all he's done is invalid.
Of course, that would take backbones for the Republicans and an honest media.
I think it is important and no one else has it except a Green-Car website, tell me how it isn’t? We are starved for domestic energy, it is happening in the private sector only and now the anointed one tries to get control with an EO. Breaking to me...
So the short story is that what was working well is now going to be “working better” because gov’t will be managing it, right?
/sarc
Where is ol ‘Boone Pickens? He’s over 80, but he ought to be able to beat the skinny Marxist with one hand tied behind his back.
Obviously, instead of producing cheap domestic energy, the Liar-in-Chief wants to throw more money down the toilet to his “green” cronies so they can launder it to his campaign/retirement fund.
“coordinate” = “block”.
Well, I recently acted on advice from my financial mentor and shifted towards some pipeline stocks - companies already geared toward LNG as well as crude and other products. Now I am getting nervous.
Ping.
I don’t think even Obama will seriously stop the rise of natural gas use or even fracking. But in order to conceed the issue without damaging himself for the election, he needs to “do something.” This lets him “do something,” take credit for all this natural gas we are drilling for, and go into the election with it removed as an issue.
It is Breaking News because even without reading you can count on it being an effort to shut down the only successful and cheap energy the country has.
That’s Breaking News in my book.
“Is this another power grab before 11/12 to have more power if re-elected or muck it up for Romney?”
Romney will be worse, so I’ve heard.
This EO helps Obama extort campaign donations from the natural gas industry.
Soooooooooooooooo....Are we being forced into a ONE-Branch (dictatorship) form of government?
Yet another bloated bureaucracy?
Oh yeah, you guessed it, here it comes...
Director of Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz
Cecilia Muñoz is the President’s Domestic Policy Advisor and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Previously, Ms. Muñoz served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Cecilia served as Senior Vice-President for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. She supervised NCLR’s policy staff covering a variety of issues of importance to Latinos, including civil rights, employment, poverty, farmworker issues, education, health, housing, and immigration. Her particular area of expertise is immigration policy, which she covered at NCLR for twenty years.
Ms. Muñoz is the former Chair of the Board of Center for Community Change, and served on the U.S. Programs Board of the Open Society Institute and the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Philanthropies and the National Immigration Forum.
Ms. Muñoz is the daughter of immigrants from Bolivia and was born in Detroit, Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. In June 2000, she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in recognition of her work on immigration and civil rights. In 2007, she served as the Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She has received numerous other awards and recognitions from various sources, including the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and a variety of local non-profit organizations.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/dpc
So... what the ???
I do not see a single item that is any indication whatsoever that she should have ANY input into the management and regulation of the u.S. natural gas industry.
She is pretty much a race pimptress for LaRaza and apparently never had never had a job outside of government (taxpayer) funded "affirmative action" giveaway programs.
So, OF COURSE she will be put in charge of all policy decisions of the entire u.S. natural gas industry.
I’d like to be on this Working Group. It looks very diverse. They probably meet in nice hotels and eat good food.
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