Will Obama's EPA Kill Off the Only Bright Spot in US Economy?

Mr. Obama's broad policy of attacking the US private sector shows no sign of slowing. The Obama EPA is doing its utmost to shut down shale oil & gas using any dirty tricks it can find or create:

The latest salvo in the administration's war on energy may be new rules and permits to regulate a process to get oil and gas from porous rock, sacrificing jobs and economic growth while under review.

There are a few areas of the U.S. that are booming. Two of these are in North Dakota and Pennsylvania, states that sit atop two massive shale rock formations, the Bakken and the Marcellus.

Extraction of oil and natural gas from these formations have created jobs and economic growth in the midst of a stagnant and parched economy.

...Yet the Environmental Protection Agency, bowing to environmentalists' pressure and faithful to the administration mantra that fossil fuels are harmful and obsolete, is preparing to nip this economic boom in the bud by regulating it to death.

In January, state regulators in places like North Dakota and Pennsylvania must write new rules for hydraulic fracturing and the fluids used in the process.

These rules are to be based on an EPA guidance document that is under review by the Office of Management and Budget. The document will tell states how to comply with and issue permits in compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Keep in mind that even EPA director Lisa Jackson could provide no evidence of groundwater contamination due to fracking. She recently recently told a House Oversight Committee hearing that, despite anecdotal evidence, "I'm not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water."

"This 60-year-old technique has been responsible for 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas," according to Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. "In hydraulic fracturing's 60-year-history, there has not been a single documented case of contamination." _IBD

More: Russia warns Europe to step away from the shale gas and make no sudden moves!

As the communists insisted that they had found the ideal model for society and that capitalism was doomed, Russia today insists that shale gas is a harmful, temporary phenomenon that won’t affect its traditional gas business.

Shale gas has revolutionized the gas business in the U.S., and industry experts and executives say the same could happen in Europe and Asia.

Russia, however, has repeatedly downplayed the role of shale gas and insisted it won’t hurt its lucrative model of extracting gas at deposits in West Siberia and pumping it through huge pipelines to consumers in Russia and Europe. _WSJ_via_GWPF

Shale gas development in Europe and Asia represents a huge threat to Gazprom's profit line, and to Russia's ability to bully its neighbors and energy customers.

Curious how the nefarious interests of Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin tend to coincide from time to time. Twin sons of different mothers?