Obama Turns His Back on the Middle Class with New Methane Emissions Regulations
By Drew Johnson
In his State of the Union, President Barack Obama called on Congress to practice "middle-class economics," by "unleashing new jobs," "helping working families" and "building the most competitive economy anywhere."
It seems odd, then, that the president spent the days leading up to the speech ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to unleash harsh and unnecessary new regulations on energy companies that will kill jobs, slap families with higher gas and electricity costs, and ravage the American economy.
The new rules will force the oil and natural gas industry to cut methane emissions by up to 45 percent by 2025. While that may sound like a fine way to give Mother Nature a break, the reality is there's no evidence that the regulations will do anything to benefit the environment. In fact, the regulations are a clear example of a solution looking for a problem.
Methane emissions are decreasing dramatically without governmental meddling. Emissions from natural gas systems have fallen 40 percent since 2006, according to the administration's own estimates. Since 2007, domestic natural gas production has jumped by 26 percent.
One reason for the decline in methane emissions are voluntary efforts by the energy industry to improve technologies used in oil and natural gas production. According to the EPA's own data, for example, methane emissions resulting from fracking are down 73 percent.
A second reason methane emissions have fallen is the industry's renewed commitment to capture and reuse the methane it produces -- the gas is an important resource used in fuel and chemical manufacturing. Methane's value makes Mr. Obama's new regulations unnecessary. "It would be like issuing regulations forcing ice cream makers to spill less ice cream," remarked Thomas Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research.
To make a bad idea even worse, the president's new diktat will dramatically limit the safe and responsible hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling practices that have led to historically low oil prices and ushered in a new era of American energy independence. The White House admits it hasn't even bothered to calculate the cost or economic ramifications of the new regulations.
Clearly, however, the result will be fewer jobs; higher electricity, home heating, and gasoline prices; and a renewed reliance on foreign oil from hostile countries.
So why is President Obama imposing such foolish, unnecessary and illogical emissions rules?
The regulations appear to be just another despicable attack on energy companies by the president in order to please his environmental extremist supporters.
Obama is already engaged in an irresponsible war on coal that is expected to wipe out 600,000 domestic jobs and cost Americans more than $150 billion in higher electricity bills.
Now it appears that the president has his sights set on bullying oil and natural gas producers, too -- even though doing so has negligible value for the environment.
While Obama may be scoring points with his environmentalist buddies by beating up on America's energy producers, he's falling out of favor with the millions of Americans who are getting the shaft from the administration's economically nonsensical policies that wreck family budgets, destroy jobs and sink businesses.
If President Obama truly is serious about "middle-class economics," his first order of business should be to give middle-class Americans a break by scrapping his harmful methane emissions rule.
Drew Johnson is a senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to a smaller, more responsible government. Visit TPA online at www.protectingtaxpayers.org.
