2-21-12 – President Usurps Congressional Authority and Seeks to Zone and Restrict Ocean Use Before Election Day!

Another Critical Deadline for Comment; Please Do.  Here’s Why:   Dear Readers:   The Obama administration threatens to approve and implement a "Zoning of The Oceans" — by this Spring, well before the presidential election — and further hinder our freedom and ability to create jobs and achieve energy independence by developing our own fossil and renewable energy, commercial fishing, recreational and other resources and activities (i.e. like ocean transportation).  See our earlier comments on this Obama initiative taken by Executive Order without Congressional authorization and which places an additional regulatory overlay across our (i.e. already highly regulated) oceans and water systems flowing into them.  It is truly a case of, "Freedom Supressed and Government Gone Wild", 1, 2, 3.  While the White House says, "Need for Congressional Authorization is a Myth", the President and his chicken house full of crafty, activist foxes are truly annexing Congressional authority by calling his zoning initiative a restructuring of government services.  It is like a belligerent, passive-aggressive teenager who says, "I was home by midnight. Technically, I didn’t disobey you when I drove with my friends to Chicago.  I didn’t tell you we wouldn’t go there and, remember, I was home by midnight."   The National Ocean Policy Draft Implementation Plan proposes more than 53 federal actions and nearly 300 milestones that call for, among other things: A national zoning plan that could cordon off vast areas of the ocean from human activity and which will be developed by regional zoning boards comprised of government bureaucrats; New studies that could unnecessarily and indefinitely delay commercial and recreational activities, effectively halting those activities; A new federal land grab of millions of acres of onshore and offshore areas; and Regulations that apply to both inland and water-based activities The National Ocean Council, which spends many millions of dollars of agencies Obama has ordered to participate is currently accepting comments on the Draft Implementation Plan.  The National Ocean Policy has already been cited as justification in part for not allowing any Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing to take place outside the Gulf of Mexico and limited areas in Alaska until at least 2017.  Implementation of the National Ocean Policy, as currently proposed, will limit domestic energy development and other valid and responsible use of the oceans — including wind energy projects — and will further harm our nation’s economy.     IS THE CONGRESS SLEEPING AS ITS AUTHORITY IS BEING USURPED BY AN OVERREACHING EXECUTIVE? Make sure the National Ocean Council hears from you before its comment deadline, next Monday, February 27.  Copy Members of Congress.  Put your comment in the comment space below or send it to us for later publication.  Feel free to edit the Consumer Energy Alliance letter here as you see fit.  For more information on how these policies may affect you, listen to the National Ocean Policy Coalition.   Never give up. Dave Harbour Publisher Northern Gas Pipelines

AP-

Canadian Natural Gas Declines as Mild US Weather Pares Demand, Bloomberg – Pipeline Flows Gas was flowing at a daily rate of 2.53 billion cubic feet at Empress, Alberta, where the fuel is transferred to TransCanada’s main line. At McNeil, Saskatchewan, where gas is transferred to  the Northern Border Pipeline for shipment to …

ADN.  BP says it’s working to meet customer demand as its Cherry Point refinery in Washington state remains idle following a fire. 

 Bloomberg: Oil profits slide fastest since Lehman collapse on gas – Profits for the biggest U.S. energy producers including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are poised to decline the most since the financial meltdown of 2008-09 as the drilling technique known as fracking collapses natural gas prices. Exxon and Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), which today reports 2011 earnings, will see net income in 2012 slide about 8 percent and 10 percent, respectively, according to the mean of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.