Posted on 12/19/2016 5:42:01 PM PST by artichokegrower
President Barack Obama is preparing to block the sale of new offshore drilling rights in much of the U.S. Arctic and parts of the Atlantic, a move that could indefinitely restrict oil production there, according to two people familiar with the decision.
Obama will invoke a provision in a 1953 law that gives him wide latitude to withdraw U.S. waters from future oil and gas leasing, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced. Until now the law has been used sparingly to preserve coral reefs, walrus feeding grounds and marine sanctuaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
Remember the idea of minting trillion dollar platinum coins to "cure" the budget deficit? That was from the same cause. Congress allowed the U.S. Mint to make a certain number of gold and silver coins in specified denominations and also platinum coins, but without any legal limits. It was believed that the mint would act responsibly and only make a few collectors coins. Instead the Dems wanted to use that to push through the largest counterfeit in history.
Big deal. The administration should take the position (executive orders are cool) that current leases may be extended and the territory to which they refer, may be expanded. The leases may be transferred to other companies through the conveyance of a suitable government service fee. No new, no bothersome law.
Jerry Brown wants Obama to permanently ban oil and gas drilling off California coast
Gov. Jerry Brown called Tuesday on President Barack Obama to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling off Californias coast, and renewed his promise to confront the threat of climate change regardless of what direction Republican Donald Trump takes as incoming president.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article120665248.html
Thats Dorkbama.
You mean The Obamanation of Desolation.
I like that one, along with Barack Diaperstain Obama.
“Anything obama does TRump can undoes.”
First, Trump nominates a certifiably conservative judge to SCOTUS.
Second, file a court case.
Third, auction off the drilling tracts.
Might want to name the least productive tract the Obama tract.
I thought just to make the statement (and it would help with this too), DT should just, at about 12:05 on 1/20, issue his first EO, cancelling Ebola's en masse, with the caveat that they'd be reviewed and that any valid ones that might perchance have slipped through, then they'd be reinstated.
We are going to get a real justice department soon.
Perhaps Obama should start looking at retirement property in a non-extraditable country.
A Mulligan, he learned it from Bill Clinton.
There really should be a law against last minute last ditch efforts by an outgoing president to muck up the country so bad that the incoming president has no choice but to spend all their time tryign to undo all the crap-
drill the coral reefs and eat all the walruses.
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I haven’t had a Chumley Burger in a while.
A single EO should be ready for Trump to sign while still on the balcony after being sworn in. It should list ALL the previous EO’s that are hereby rescinded. Not just Obama’s, either. There are undoubtedly dozens of others going all the way back to FDR that are the root of government intruding regulations.
Between 1946 and 2001, there were 240 Agencies or Departments that were not created by Congress but instead by Executive Order. Including the ATF, NSA, Welfare Administration, Department of Education, EPA, and on and on. How many of these now have a life of their own and how many can be abolished by a President ? What happens to the laws that have been passed to codify and support these agencies if the Agency itself is abolished ?
I’d just replace all the keyboards and mice anyway. Too hard to clean and disinfect.
I’d also get the best anti-spyware and malware private contractor available to come in and clean the computers themselves. The same goes for eavesdropping equipment and bugs in the telecom equipment, networking equipment, routers, firewalls, and servers.
I wouldn’t trust government techs to do it until after my own people had been in control of all the agencies long enough to have cleaned house personnel-wise.
There is no such thing as too much paranoia after Dims have had control of anything for eight years.
I like the way you think.
You may as well go back to Teddy Roosevelt. He was the original progressive.
Nobody should announce it, but Congress should “run long” so the recess only lasts a nanosecond. Then when Ozero announces his “recess appointment” with a time-stamp of 11:56AM, Congress can inform him, “Gee, sorry but we ran long and were still in session at that time. Too bad. So sad.”
I disagree. We should strive to make resource extraction cheaper and cheaper and access all of it.
When we are in the position of needing zero imported oil, and are in fact exporting more than OPEC and Russia combined, THEN we can slow down. If that drives the price of oil down to $5/bbl, then we just need to work on making extraction cheap enough to work with that. Low oil prices hurt our enemies and help our economy.
We don’t want to leave “money in the bank” while we are paying interest on our $20T debt (some to other countries we don’t like) and our enemies can extort our friends over energy supplies. Oil and gas leases and royalties are a potential source of increased federal revenue that we desperately need to avoid taxing ourselves into the ground to pay down our debt and future entitlement obligations.
Beelzebama, son of Perdition..
“There is no such thing as too much paranoia after Dims have had control of anything for eight years.”
Read today that Trump plans on keeping his private security people. Smart guy, given the $hit people that pervade our government today.
The laws are pretty clear on out-going Presidents not sabotaging a President-elect during the window between Election and Inauguration. I wonder how much of this crap can be nullified under the 1963 “Presidential Transition Act” :
[The national interest requires that such transitions in the office of President be accomplished so as to assure continuity in the faithful execution of the laws and in the conduct of the affairs of the Federal Government, both domestic and foreign. Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people. Accordingly, it is the intent of the Congress that appropriate actions be authorized and taken to avoid or minimize any disruption. In addition to the specific provisions contained in this Act directed toward that purpose, it is the intent of the Congress that all officers of the Government so conduct the affairs of the Government for which they exercise responsibility and authority as (1) to be mindful of problems occasioned by transitions in the office of President, (2) to take appropriate lawful steps to avoid or minimize disruptions that might be occasioned by the transfer of the executive power, and (3) otherwise to promote orderly transitions in the office of President.]
Putting natural resources off-limits sounds to me like a violation. It modifies the use of a law or passes a new law expressly to undermine the effectiveness of the President-elect’s plans to promote “safety and well-being of the United States and its people.” Trump’s plans have always included making America energy independent and expanding the oil,gas, and coal industries to help American workers and promote the nation’s security.
It would be like Obama pardoning all of the criminals in Federal prisons or all the illegal aliens. Those actions would be sabotage.
The outgoing POTUS and his staff are constrained from doing things that will be disruptive to existing law or policy during the Transition period.
Whether giving away US territory or basing rights during the Transition would be “disruptive” enough to be a violation of the 1963 Presidential Transition Act might be an interesting SCOTUS decision. Pardoning individuals, unless they were mass murderers or something, is obviously not enough to trigger the Act. Opening the jails is the kind of sore-loser-man stuff you see in other countries when government changes hands. Doing that, or pardoning all the illegal aliens, would have enough societal impact that I think it SHOULD be a violation of the Act.
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