Obama to Get Harsh on Energy in Second Term

Despite Obama's claims to have increased oil & gas production in the US, in reality he had nothing to do with it. But Obama is poised to begin shutting energy production down. And he knows exactly how to do it: through regulation and executive order.

Obama is expected to tighten rules and regulations governing energy exploration, actions that may add billions in costs for oil and gas companies.

ClearView Energy Partners analysts, in Washington, expect the president to “continue prosecuting energy policy through regulation and administrative action, with only the courts as a check on that agenda,” according to a note sent to clients last week.

Tougher restrictions are expected for companies drilling on federal lands as well as more rules governing water management and methane emissions. Any new rules related to hydraulic fracturing may drive up costs for active drillers including Chesapeake Energy Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp. _Reuters_via_GWPF

Campaigns are one thing, but fulfilling promises to your big money campaign backers and get-out-the-vote enforcers is something else again. You gotta dance with them that brung you.

...Obama is deemed by opponents to have waged a “war on coal” over the past four years, particularly through stricter Environmental Protection Agency regulation. Hal Quinn, president of the National Mining Association, criticized Obama for not living up to a 2008 promise to develop clean coal technology. “Current administration policies virtually preclude the construction of new, cleaner coal-based plants that are the necessary platform for the technology the president advocated,” Quinn said. “These same policies have skewed the market against coal.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pointed to estimates of up to 33 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity generation due to be retired – about 3 percent of total U.S. power capacity. While tougher regulation has played a part, cheap natural gas as an alternative power source is also driving that change. _Reuters_via_GWPF

For the first time in Obama's short political life, he does not have to campaign for election or re-election to anything. That leaves a lot of time for golf, vacations, and lavish parties. And it gives the activist bureaucrats in his administration a free hand to do their worst. And that is what they have been waiting for.

More: Taxpayer funded EPA witch-hunts do not promote prosperity