“[E]nvironmentalists who had supported natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to kill coal were caught flat-footed. Of course, they are starting to turn against gas now that it appears to be abundant.”
Naval War College instructor Mackubin Thomas Owens comments in the Boston Herald:
… It is tempting to believe that shale gas and shale oil are real game-changers, but who knows what this administration can cook up? We can count on the EPA to claim jurisdiction. After all, an agency that claims the authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, thereby raising electricity rates nationwide, thus undermining U.S. industries and sending more jobs overseas, would consider regulating fracking as child’s play.
Like barnacles on a ship, administration policies have placed a drag on U.S. productivity. That oil, gas and coal producers have accomplished as much as they have despite the onerous constraints of costly regulations is a tribute to their persistence and innovativeness. But it would be better to scrape the barnacles off altogether and unleash the energy sector.