In Return For Energy Security Energy Industry Gets Shackles

In Return For Energy Security Energy Industry Gets Shackles - Investors.com
"...Yet shale producers continue to face formidable political obstacles.
The Obama administration, always happy to take credit for surging oil and natural gas production, is using the EPA and other regulatory bodies to burden energy companies with red tape and added costs.
Take the EPA's landmark report on the safety of fracking.
After years of research, the agency found what we already knew — that fracking is being done, and can continue to be done, safely.
And yet what did our domestic producers get from this?
New, onerous fracking rules for federal lands from the Interior Department.
The EPA followed those rules by proposing unnecessary regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas production.
The Obama administration and the EPA in particular seem intent on creating problems for our domestic oil and gas industry where there is none.
According to the EPA's own data, methane emissions have fallen 38%, while production has grown by 35% since 2005.
The methane "problem" simply doesn't cry out for new, expensive regulation.
...We need to modernize our energy policy for the 21st century to reflect America's new status as a world energy superpower and lift the oil export ban altogether.
The shale revolution and its myriad economic, environmental and energy security benefits are fighting for their survival against the Saudis and OPEC, both of which are bent on regaining control of the oil trade.
As a counterweight, we need a U.S. energy policy and a regulatory approach that encourage our oil and gas producers.
Overzealous environmental regulation and inaction on the crude export ban are gifts from the Obama administration that Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela don't deserve.