Calgary Herald Opinion, by Deborah Yedlin. It’s nothing short of mind-boggling. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair briefly toured the oilsands Thursday. But his visit didn’t appear to change his negative stance on the industry whose financial benefits outside this province top $100 billion on an annual basis, with the lion’s share going to Ontario.
Yesterday, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) sent  a series of letters to the Obama Administration requesting further information on how much the federal government spends on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-related litigation and settlement costs. “The Endangered Species Act has been overtaken by lawyers and become a tool for litigation and unending lawsuits. The government then agrees to costly, closed-door settlement agreements and the American people deserve to know how much of their taxpayer dollars are going towards attorney fees instead of actual species recovery,” said Chairman Hastings. “As part of the Committee’s work to improve the ESA, this is an effort to discover whether these payments represent a prudent use of the taxpayers’ money and whether there are ways to avoid costly and debilitating lawsuits in the future so that both species and the American people are better protected under the law.” |
Comment: Could President Obama Take Control of Energy, Transportation, Food, Water, and Manufacturing before the end of his term of office? We showed in a recent Op-Ed that he has put into place the means to do so. We took note that Junk Science has linked to our opinion piece and received only two comments (at this writing), both relatively supportive. The original Op-Ed attracted mostly supportive but some critical response–more on politics than on merits. We would only add that today’s non-farm payroll jobs report has sparked near panic in the initial opening minutes of the New York Stock Exchange, on top of dismal economic news from China, India and Europe. CNBC talking heads — so vested in the status quo — are now talking about even more ‘qualitative easing’ (dollar devaluation/inflation) and the possibility of an economic meltdown in Europe. Since this Administration has shown a proclivity to use crises as pretext for progressive accumulation of Federal power, we think our readers will want to be especially alert to this President’s response to the historic, economic events now unfolding–the domestic ones of which are the result of his own, conscious decision making. -dh |
ALERT reminder from the Resource Development Council (RDC): The Obama Administration’s draft watershed assessment for Bristol Bay is available for public review and comment. The assessment and potential actions could undermine existing regulatory processes and set a dangerous precedent for development projects in Alaska, and around the nation. If the EPA can preemptively halt one project on state land before the project enters the permitting process, this action could become a new tool for development opponents to use against all industries in Alaska–including oil, gas, mining and pipelines. Many of our NGP readers participated with us a week ago in the Obama Administration’s hearing to gather comment on whether to restrict petroleum access to the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska. While your author will be meeting out of state next week with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, we urge our friends to join in the effort Monday to assure that the legal record includes our own citizen viewpoints. Please meet and testify at the Anchorage hearing on Monday, June 4th, 5:30 p.m. (Come early!!!) at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium in Anchorage. For more information, visit RDC’s alert online at
http://www.akrdc.org/alerts/
Yesterday we received a video
of the Memorial Day interview with Mark Colavecchio and Dorene Lorenz. Our panel discussed personal, patriotic and energy issues for nearly and hour. Hopefully, John Hofmeister will forgive me for misplacing his name while under the lights and my other gracious readers will find some useful energy issue discussion amid the reparté. Please note that …on Thursday, June 21, 2012, John Hofmeister, President, Citizens for Affordable Energy, will be speaking at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center.
Fairbanks News Miner. FNG President Dan Britton said Thursday he expects to apply for state assistance under legislation that Governor Sean Parnell signed into law this week while in Fairbanks. The new law, championed by GVEA and Flint Hills, provides up to $15 million in direct state financial aid or tax credits for construction of liquefied natural gas storage facilities.
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