Posted on 10/21/2020 4:19:35 AM PDT by karpov
Joe Biden is probably telling the truth when he says he wont ban fracking. A president cant do that by executive order. And even if Democrats seize the Senate, a legislative ban would be politically risky. Far more likely is that a Biden administration would end fracking via indirect means, by taking a regulatory nibble here and a legislative bite there.
While Mr. Biden has flip-flopped on fracking, he has consistently pledged to outlaw drilling on federal lands. That would affect 8% of all U.S. oil production, 9% of gas production, and 6% of natural gas liquids production. He has also committed to reversing President Trumps deregulatory efforts, including the rollback of an Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring the oil-and-gas industry to pay to limit methane leaks from fracking wells.
Big oil companies support the Obama rule because it puts the squeeze on smaller players. If the rule is reinstated, struggling independent frackers will either close up shop or sell themselves to larger companies, whose profits have been harmed by a production glut. With the ability to control and limit overall production, those larger frackers could reduce the glut and increase their profits. There would be less frackingand higher energy prices for consumers.
The rest of the Biden administrations antifracking playbook would mimic the Obama administrations destruction of 94% of the market value of the coal industry from 2011-16. Making good on a campaign promise to bankrupt utilities that wanted to build coal plants, Mr. Obamas EPA issued air-quality rules that made existing coal plants too expensive to operate. Another rule banned new coal plants unless they were built with nonexistent technology to capture and store emissions.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Cool. Higher taxes AND higher gas prices AND higher electric bills. What’s not to like? /s
I am considering cancelling my subscription to this rag today. Probably theres 10 to 1 pro Biden articles. The journal used to be reliably conservative. Only a few writers are worth anything, Kimberly Strassel, Dan Henninger, McGurk guy. Jason Riley sucks lately.
And a carbon tax.....that taxes everything. i.e., your car.
Part of the decline in coal was due to the rise in fracking. People forget that gas was 8 cents in 2008 and recently dipped below 2 cents. It made no sense to use coal for electric plants anymore.
Biden wont, Harris will. Shortly after his inauguration, he will resign for health reasons.
If Democrats take the White House, get ready for some unprecedentedly hard times. If they take the Senate, too, get ready for a general collapse. Not that anyone could really get prepared much for such an event,...
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