Looks like one got done, though. The Jindal administration put out a release just now trumpeting an end to the legacy lawsuit controversy…

Governor Bobby Jindal’s point-person on legacy lawsuits – Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle – has reached a compromise with landowners, oil and gas industry representatives and key legislators involved in solving the legacy lawsuit issue.

Secretary Angelle said this compromise accomplishes two goals, including accelerating environmental clean-up from exploration and production activities, and ensuring that the party responsible for environmental damage is actually held responsible for cleaning it up.

Secretary Angelle said, “Louisiana has a long and distinguished history of oil and gas production as well as being a unique slice of America that offers some of the best of the great outdoors. To reach a compromise, it was important that we came to a balance that enables us to continue to lead the country in energy production and also be good stewards of the environment. This compromise provides for transparency in the process, accelerates clean-up of the environment and protects innocent parties from punitive damages.

“I want to personally thank Senator Allain, Senator Adley, Senator Long, Senator Alario, Representative Abramson, Speaker Kleckley and all the other stakeholders for their time, passion, and commitment on this issue.”

Key Points For Compromise:

1. In order to accelerate clean-up, the compromise will allow a party to admit responsibility for environmental damage according to a regulatory standard without having to admit liability for private damages.
2. Once a party admits responsibility, the Department of Natural Resources will be charged with structuring a feasible plan that will protect the environment, public health, safety and welfare of the state.
3. The compromise requires oversight of the feasible plan by the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality and the Commissioner of Agriculture.
4. Both the feasible plan and the comments of each agency are admissible in court.
5. During the design of the feasible plan – and to guarantee, transparency – no employee, contractor or representative of the state shall have any ex parte communication.
6. For any party that admits responsibility, they waive the right to enforce contractual rights to indemnification for punitive damages caused by the responsible party’s acts or omission.

Senate President John Alario said, “This is, and has been, a difficult issue to solve for many years. By working together over many months with all of the interested parties we have reached a compromise. I want to thank Sec. Angelle, these Senators, and all the stakeholders for their commitment to remain at the table until a deal could be reached.”

Speaker Chuck Kleckley said, “I want to thank Secretary Angelle, leaders in both chambers, and stakeholders for coming together and reaching a compromise. Now that we have an agreement we can move this legislation through the process.

Senator Robert Adley said, “This is an issue I’ve been personally involved with for many years and I’m thankful that we’ve reached a compromise that satisfies both the oil and gas industry, as well as Louisiana landowners. This is a needed step toward ensuring that companies who are willing to clean up anything they’re required to clean up.”

Senator Gerald Long said, “Today’s agreement is the result of months of hard work and negotiations. I was proud to be a part of this process and I’m more proud that we have come together in way that holds responsible parties accountable and ensures a pathway for us to clean-up our environment. Throughout this process, it has been my intention to find a solution that leaves all stakeholders satisfied. This agreement meets that goal. No one got everything they wanted, but everyone got something and that’s what compromise is all about.”

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs said, “Over the course of the last twelve months, the Jindal Administration and stakeholders have worked to find a solution to curb the legacy lawsuit problem in Louisiana. Today, we reached an agreement on proposed legacy lawsuit reform legislation that we believe will ensure timely regulatory clean up of the land while protecting a landowner’s right to recover damages.”

President of Roy O. Martin Lumber Roy Martin said, “We thank the Governor’s Office, Senator Allain, Senator Long and our attorney Jimmy Faircloth for working to ensure the interest of landowners, industry, and independent producers are protected in this reasonable compromise. As we move forward, we are passionate in continuing to work with all parties to ensure clean-up is done in a practical manner which doesn’t unjustly enrich one party.”

Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association President Chris John said, “We’ve been working toward a compromise for many months and I want to especially thank Secretary Angelle for his continued commitment to reaching an agreement all parties can agree to. I want to also thank all of the stakeholders involved, including the members of our Association, for working together to send a clear message to the oil and gas industry that Louisiana is open for business.”

Farm Bureau representative Joe Mapes said, “Farm Bureau is pleased with the compromise, especially the oversight by the Commissioner of Agriculture. It is important that agriculture has a voice in this process.”

Louisiana Landowners Association Executive Director Paul Frey said, “The Louisiana Landowners Association appreciates that the Governor’s Office has helped to achieve this compromise. We add a special thanks to Senator Allain who is a key advocate for landowners. Without his leadership this would not have happened.”

In one email obtained by The Times-Picayune, Richard Larrabee, senior special agent assigned to investigate the matter for the Department of Interior’s inspector general, wrote: “I truly believe the editing ‘WAS’ intentional — by an overzealous staffer at the White House. And, if asked, I, as the case agent, would be happy to state that opinion to anyone interested.” Larrabee declined Monday to comment on the emails.

The Interior Department report, issued a month after the BP oil spill, is now before Congress, with the House Natural Resources Committee subpoenaing some of the same email messages that Larrabee had sought.

In a series of emails, Larrabee voices his displeasure on the handling of the investigation. He complains, for example, that the final inspector general’s report, which concluded there was no evidence of intentional misrepresentation, didn’t note that investigators were denied full access to requested email messages.

Associate Interior Inspector General Kris Kolesnik said the office stands behind its report and that the office received full cooperation, including access to documents, requested from agency officials.

Adam Fetcher, a Department of Interior spokesman, said the department moved to correct the spill report “immediately after being made aware of the error in the executive summary.”

While the moratorium was controversial, especially with the oil industry and Louisiana lawmakers, Fetcher said: “With the full force of the federal government responding to the largest oil spill in U.S. history, Secretary (Ken) Salazar recognized that the nation could neither afford the risk nor respond to a second catastrophic spill in the Gulf at the same time.”

Larrabee concedes that email messages were provided from Salazar’s office, but he said the final inspector general’s report should have had a disclaimer “that we did not independently validate” them by reviewing computer hard drives.

In one comment sent to his supervisors, Larrabee expresses dismay the final IG report “makes no mention” that investigators sought unsuccessfully to interview Joe Aldy, a White House official involved in the last-minute editing of the spill report. The report “is simply silent about our desire to interview Aldy and the White House declination,” he wrote.

His emails make mention of a summary sent in 2010 to Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, on the inspector general’s review of the department’s oil spill report. The two Louisiana lawmakers had requested the inspector general investigation. The summary reiterates that agency officials insist the mistake was inadvertent.

In an email to a supervisor, Larrabee asks: “How did the summary work for you? Do you think it will be enough of a diversion so that the senator and the congressman will not bother requesting the actual report on investigation, as suggested?” He also said investigators weren’t given full access to “records, reports, audits, review documents, papers, and recommendations of other material” as Salazar himself had decreed in an April 20, 2010, memo.

“I am deeply concerned that this is yet another example of how a double standard is being followed in this investigation in granting great deference to the secretary’s office that would not be granted to any other department bureaus or employees. For what it is worth,” Larrabee writes in an email.

The email messages given to the Times-Picayune cover the years 2010 and 2011.

In response to the emails, Kolesnik, the associate inspector general, said the Department of Interior provided “all the relevant documents that were requested.” About its failure to get an interview with the White House official responsible for editing the agency’s oil spill report, including the recommendation for the moratorium, Kolesnik said the inspector general “does not have authority to compel” White House cooperation.

The Obama administration, like previous administrations, has asserted executive privilege to rebuff efforts to obtain documents and interviews with officials who advise the president.

Asked about Larrabee’s statement that, in his opinion, the editing mistake was intentional, Kolesnik said an investigator is “entitled to have a personal opinion, but the OIG reports are factual.” In several emails, Larrabee writes that Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee, which took over control of the panel after the GOP victories in the House 2010 elections, would likely pursue the White House report on the moratorium more aggressively than the previous Democratic majority.

“The chickens may be coming home to roost,” he said.

Source: Gulf oil spill moratorium inquiries rebuffed, investigator says

“Even though Al ‘Crucify Them’ Armendariz is gone, Washington continues to fire shots at our job-creating fossil fuel industry. As soon as energy prices fall ever so slightly, the Obama Administration goes into attack mode with more regulations and government red-tape. With over 12 million Americans out of work, the Administration should join me in assisting our job creators. I will continue to fight against the President’s ridiculous regulations, burdensome rules that come with not one shred of evidence from the EPA showing fracking harming the environment. I encourage my constituents, colleagues, and fellow Americans to be vocal throughout the upcoming comment period. Together, we can help put our neighbors back to work and end the continuous big government assault on our domestic energy jobs.”

via Landry Responds to Fracking Proposals.

The recent natural gas boom in the United States has been so wide-spread and profound that it has dropped natural gas prices to historical lows. These prices are so low that producers have begun to scale back operations as extraction has almost become uneconomical. We should be focused on exploring new commercial markets for natural gas to take advantage of such a low-cost energy source. Because technology and supply is currently available to sell the natural gas equivalent for about $1.50 a gallon compared with the current price of gasoline, it would seem natural for consumers to begin making the switch to compressed natural gas CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) vehicles.

So if the technology is already available and we have at least a 100-year supply of natural gas right here in America, why aren’t we all driving CNG cars?

Unfortunately, the main obstacle is a lack of natural gas fuel infrastructure in our country. Currently in the United States, there are only 449 CNG fueling stations accessible to the public, which is dwarfed by the more than 157,000 gasoline stations.

There are a number of proposals to spur natural gas infrastructure development in Washington. Not surprisingly, when it comes to Congress, the most talked about option involves subsidies for both natural gas vehicles and for the actual CNG fuel itself. While we should be using all of our available natural resources to aid in lowering the costs of transportation, the reality is that our country has neither the money to subsidize development nor the expertise to pick winners and losers in the energy and transportation sectors.

As opposed to subsidies, I believe that a simple change to our tax code would help those companies that develop natural gas look at domestic retail infrastructure development as a serious option. For background purposes, it is important to understand the differences between independent and major oil and gas producers. Under our tax code, independent producers of oil and gas, such as Apache and Chesapeake, are different from major oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil or Shell, as independents are limited to $ 5 million in revenue from retail sales. Whether intentional or not, this antiquated provision is keeping companies that from investing in CNG fueling stations all over the country.

I have drafted legislation, H.R. 1712, that will help remove these unnecessary tax barriers. It begins by recognizing that independent producers are the companies principally involved in new natural gas discoveries, and who have the most financial incentive to find new markets for natural gas. The creation of a new market for natural gas — as well as a new income stream for independent producers — would almost undoubtedly incentivize these companies to invest in the infrastructure needed to deliver CNG through retail operations.

This plan would allow the private markets to function free from direct government interference, all without the enormous costs to taxpayers that are associated with subsidies. I hope that before our country moves further into debt by trying to influence the free market, we take a hard look at the low-cost opportunities presented by fixing the flaws in our tax code. Additionally, private financing of this sort of infrastructure will create jobs for construction workers who have been the most impacted by the current recession, as well as strengthen energy security by replacing foreign oil with domestic natural gas.

The natural gas boom currently taking place in Louisiana has created jobs, lowered CNG prices, and helped to spur renewed manufacturing development. And through the simple change in the tax code my bill proposes, we have the opportunity to expand retail sales of natural gas throughout the country, which can deliver job creation and energy security for all Americans.

U.S. Rep. Dr. Bill Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, represents Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District and serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This piece originally appeared at the Shreveport Times.

“From issuing an offshore drilling moratorium to subsidizing exploration and production in Brazil to threatening tax increases on domestic energy companies – the President has made his intentions clear: restrict, manipulate, and regulate domestic energy companies into extinction,” said Landry. “The video footage of Armendariz is further proof the Obama Administration wants nothing more than to kill our fossil fuel industry.”

“The EPA’s web of regulations and hatred for oil companies does not make America safer; it only causes American job loss and high energy prices,” continued Landry.

“Americans should have no doubt that 4 more years of Mr. Obama in the White House is 4 more years of extremely high gas prices,” declared Landry. “So, for the sake of American families and businesses, I am not only calling for the firing of Dr. Armendariz but also that of his boss – President Obama.”

via Landry: Let the Crucifixion End, Fire Armendariz & Obama | Congressman Jeff Landry.

In case you haven’t seen the video yet, which we previously posted, here it is again:

And if you had trouble making out what Armendariz said:

“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said:

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.

“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

The video is getting a lot of play now thanks to U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) using it during a floor speech to illustrate how the Obama Administration is gunning for America’s energy producers. Inhofe outlined how the EPA has particularly demonized companies using hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas as causing water to become contaminated with no evidence to back up the claim. I suppose that Roman conquerors weren’t overly concerned with evidence about the Turks they nailed to trees, either.

Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District has now taken to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to echo Inhofe’s sentiments and called for Armendariz’s to be fired:

Fleming isn’t the only congressman from Louisiana jumping into the fray. Rep. Jeff Landry, of the 3rd Congressional District, is also calling for Armendariz to be canned—along with his boss, President Obama:

“From issuing an offshore drilling moratorium to subsidizing exploration and production in Brazil to threatening tax increases on domestic energy companies – the President has made his intentions clear: restrict, manipulate, and regulate domestic energy companies into extinction. The video footage of Armendariz is further proof the Obama Administration wants nothing more than to kill our fossil fuel industry.”

“The EPA’s web of regulations and hatred for oil companies does not make America safer; it only causes American job loss and high energy prices.”

“Americans should have no doubt that 4 more years of Mr. Obama in the White House is four more years of extremely high gas prices. So, for the sake of American families and businesses, I am not only calling for the firing of Dr. Armendariz but also that of his boss – President Obama.”

Well, we get the chance to give both Armendariz and Obama their walking papers this November. Let’s hope that happens.

Our economy can’t afford a second term with this kind of hostility toward domestic energy production and I, at least, can’t afford the $9 a gallon gasoline that Obama’s energy secretary recently speculated could be in our future. It’s past time, about three and a-half years past time, for the pink slips to go out.

Inhofe quoted a little-watched video from 2010 of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies.

In the video, Administrator Armendariz says:

“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said:

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean.  They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.

“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

“It’s a deterrent factor,” Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA is following the Romans’ philosophy for subjugating conquered villages.

Soon after Armendariz touted the EPA’s “philosophy,” the EPA began smear campaigns against natural gas producers, Inhofe’s office noted in advance of today’s Senate speech:

“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best – and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”

In his Senate speech, Sen. Inhofe said the video provides Americans with “a glimpse of the Obama administration’s true agenda.”

That agenda, Inhofe said, is to “incite fear” in the public with unsubstantiated claims and “intimidate” oil and gas companies with threats of unjustified fines and penalties – then, quietly backtrack once the public’s perception has been firmly jaded against oil and natural gas.

Source: EPA Official’s ‘Philosophy’ On Oil Companies: ‘Crucify Them’ – Just As Romans Crucified Conquered Citizens

Inhofe quoted a little-watched video from 2010 of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies.

The video might be little-watched to date, but it’s a pretty good bet it’ll become very famous very quickly now that it’s had the light of day shone on it…

What you heard on the video was the following…

“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said:

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.

“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

Inhofe said that Armendariz wasn’t just blowing smoke about the M.O. of the agency.

Soon after Armendariz touted the EPA’s “philosophy,” the EPA began a smear campaigns natural gas producers, Inhofe’s office noted in advance of today’s Senate speech:

“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best – and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”

In his Senate speech, Sen. Inhofe said the video provides Americans with “a glimpse of the Obama administration’s true agenda.”

That agenda, Inhofe said, is to “incite fear” in the public with unsubstantiated claims and “intimidate” oil and gas companies with threats of unjustified fines and penalties – then, quietly backtrack once the public’s perception has been firmly jaded against oil and natural gas.

An example: the EPA’s since-retracted smear job on Range Resources in Texas, which followed on the heels of a highly-mendacious report alleging ground-water contamination in Wyoming from hydraulic fracturing which has since fallen into disrepute.

What would be the proper term for a government agency which operates on the basis of “crucifying” private companies engaged in legitimate and necessary business in an effort to “make examples” of them and in so doing mislead the public and intimidate the peers of those companies?

Is “tyranny” applicable to such a scenario? And if it isn’t, what words would our readers use to describe this activity?

But three years later, numerous green energy companies backed financially by the administration are paying out large salaries and bonuses to their executives, even as the companies struggle to stay financially solvent.

Scribe recently reported that Ecotality, a stimulus-backed electric vehicle charging station manufacturer that has received about $141 million in Energy Department grants, increased “executive and director” compensation by 150% in 2011.

Meanwhile, the company is struggling financially. “We have a history of losses which may continue and may negatively impact our ability to achieve our business objectives,” Ecotality notes in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company posted net losses of $22.5 million last year, and “a large percentage of our revenues depends on the progress of our activities under grants from the DOE,” the SEC filing notes, meaning taxpayers are contributing mightily to the company’s continued survival, even while it increases executive compensation.

First Solar, which received nearly $1.5 billion stimulus-backed DOE loan guarantees, recently announced it would lay off 2,000 workers. But during First Solar’s quick financial decline, the company paid its CEO $32 million in salary and bonuses over three years. He was fired after presiding over a nearly 30% decline in the value of the company’s stock.

The stock price for electric vehicle battery manufacturer A123 Systems is languishing at a meager $0.86, down from a high of $25.77 in 2009. But the company, which received nearly $250 million in stimulus funds, continues to hike the pay of its top executives.

Like Ecotality, A123 is dependent upon federal support. “The failure to obtain [additional federal] funds or other incentives,” the company notes in a recent SEC filing, “could materially and adversely affect our ability to expand our manufacturing capacity and meet planned production levels.”

In 2011, four of A123’s top employees received an average 20% increase in their base salaries. Three of those executives saw further increases in their 2012 salaries, to an average of more than $375,000 apiece. It also awarded 1,210,000 shares of company stock to five of its top executives.

In addition to Ecotality, A123, and First Solar, notorious solar panel manufacturer Solyndra gave its executivespay raises and bonuses after the company went bankrupt, despite having received a $535 million federal loan guarantee through the stimulus package.

(h/t Paul Chesser)

The narrative the Democrats have been trying to push, with the Dog-Eater In Chief at the forefront, is that evil oil speculators are screwing the American people on fuel prices and that we can’t increase domestic supply to fix the problem. But Bolling and Palin do an excellent job of taking that story apart.

Do yourself a favor, carve out 40 minutes this weekend and take a look…

Origins: 1325–75; Middle English speculacioun < Late Latin speculātiōn- (stem of speculātiō ) exploration, observation                                                                                                                Dictionary.com

Beaurat Obama needs $52 Million dollars to fund “more cops on the beat” to police Petrochemical Speculators’ activities and keep us safe from those nasty old capitalists. Beaurat takes exception to speculators making a profit off of buying, holding and selling (at a profit) commodities and stock issues known as “futures”. Obama can’t figure out a way to demonize anybody else at the moment. He also can’t stand they’re good at what he sucks at doing so badly.

He should contact Hilary Clinton. Ask her if it’s cool to speculate or play the market. Clinton made a ton of cash while in private law practice speculating on what are called “Penny Stocks”: low cost and quickly responsive stock issues capable of large profits because of the nature of the market they’re in. Obviously, this is bad because Oil Speculation is something Beaurat Obama doesn’t like. He can’t subsidize speculators of this type as he does with his solar, algae and windy energy productive campaign contributors.

We’ve seen Obama has NO clue how to gamble. This became painfully clear when he told Eric Cantor to NOT call his bluff when the Congress was being bullied toward concessions on budget matters in 2011. Any idiot knows you bluff because you have lousy, losing cards in your hand. You posture as a winner to win the hand with what little you’ve got. You lead people to believe you have more than really exists. As Obama has NO real skill other than lying to us we must understand why creating a larger bureaucracy is so important.

It allows him to gamble (poorly so far) on” green energy” businesses while betting taxpayer dollars. It keeps us from looking at the fact he has No coherent energy policy. It creates another Boogey Man to scare us into accepting his “green agenda”. As Obama is so gullible he accepts a sales pitch as an educational dissertation it’s hardly intelligent to give him the keys to the piggy bank. He’s already wielding a presidential proclamation hammer to bust it all to hades because he alone thinks it’s a good idea.

We shouldn’t jump on the idea speculation is specifically gambling. Speculators make informed decisions before deciding to take on additional risks. Speculation shouldn’t be categorized as a traditional investment because the acquired risk is higher than average. Obama, having NO experience in the stock market other than what his broker tells him; takes his advice from cronies, lackeys, yes men and people who’ll directly benefit from his ability to give tax dollars away concealed and ill-defined as Economic Stimulus. He has no more grasp of the eccentricities of Macro, Micro or Supply Side Economics other than Marx’s statements they’re all exploitive of the working class and as such bad, bad, bad and mean to the “little people”.

Speculators use information they keep very close to their chests so others can’t steal their knowledge and “capture the flag” before the next guy. The speculators invest their money and the money of their partners and clients; not taxpayers. They capitalize to acquire the greatest gains for each dollar invested. They don’t plunder the American treasury to feather the nests of friends, supporters and money-bundlers contributing huge amounts of money to campaign war chests. They don’t ravage an economic system in the throes of a recession to assure the continual diminishment of old growth forests decimated to fuel (by printing worthless scrip) the futuristic pipe dreams of enviro-wonks.

Speculators may have an effect on the price of oil nationally and internationally. But, is their activity responsible for all of the irritation noted in the petro-chemical industry? Not likely. The effects of national policies, international pressures and petro-diplomacy taking regional and religious/social eccentricities into account have more to do with Oil Prices than anything else.

Beaurat Obama’s the only one doesn’t understand that.

Thanks for listening.

Sempra Energy, Inc., a San Diego-based utility and natural gas firm, has a facility in Hackberry which is set up to import and store natural gas. But Sempra just announced plans to convert the facility for liquid natural gas export, and that would make it the third facility in the state for the export of LNG.

Two other facilities, both in Lake Charles, already are in various stages of being converted to export LNG to the world market, where natural gas prices are a considerable amount higher than they are in America. The first, Cheniere Energy, announced yesterday that they received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval to convert their facility to export, and Cheniere expects to move some 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day once they’re fully up and running.

And the owner of the other Lake Charles facility, Energy Transfer Equity, LP, has sought FERC approval to convert its unit to move 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The Sempra Energy facility already has FERC approval, the company owners say, to move 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day once it’s built.

That means the Lake Charles area alone could be responsible for nearly 8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day being exported. Which would make Lake Charles the Qatar of the Western Hemisphere, or something somewhat like it, in terms of being a place where natural gas is loaded on ships and moved all over the world.

Couple that with Shell’s idea to build an American facility to essentially refine natural gas into petroleum products, which appears likely to result in a new refinery somewhere in Louisiana, and this state is likely to be to natural gas what it’s been to oil over the years.

And that might well be good news for the folks in the Haynesville Shale, who have seen the wells on their property shut in amid natural gas prices which have plummeted to uneconomic lows of late. Export and gas-to-liquids refining will refill the demand for gas to rejuvenate production in coming years.

While he’s wasting your tax dollars giving loans to companies who make batteries that blow up – before their own bottom lines blow up and your tax dollars blow up as well – the president is busy attempting to regulate hydraulic fracturing out of existence by executive fiat.

The Executive Order in question, which was released in a classic Friday document dump, offers up some boilerplate language about how important shale gas is and how goosing production is super-important. But it then launches into the creating of an “interagency working group” which will promulgate policies on fracking on federal lands. And of course if you think they’ll stop there, you’re insane.

Think this group isn’t going to be grabbing at as much regulatory power as they can? Here’s who’s in that group…

(i) the Department of Defense;

(ii) the Department of the Interior;

(iii) the Department of Agriculture;

(iv) the Department of Commerce;

(v) the Department of Health and Human Services;

(vi) the Department of Transportation;

(vii) the Department of Energy;

(viii) the Department of Homeland Security;

(ix) the Environmental Protection Agency;

(x) the Council on Environmental Quality;

(xi) the Office of Science and Technology Policy;

(xii) the Office of Management and Budget;

(xiii) the National Economic Council; and

(xiv) such other agencies or offices as the Chair may invite to participate.

You can be sure whatever these guys come up with will be a horse designed by committee. And you can also be sure said horse will be held up as a model every regulatory body should be charged with enforcing, whether it makes sense or not.

And it won’t make sense. Because geological conditions in the Marcellus Shale are not the same as the Barnett Shale or the Haynesville Shale or the Utica, Bakken or Eagle Ford or Tuscaloosa Marine, and one reason why fracking is showing such outstanding promise as a method to revolutionize the American economy is that it’s regulated locally by state agencies who see a need to actually promote energy production as a local economic engine, rather than distant federal bureaucrats who’ve swallowed the Green Energy Kool-Aid and want to raise the price of conventional domestic energy so that windmills, solar panels and ethanol all of a sudden become something other than ways to destroy taxpayer wealth.

On the surface, this is relatively innocuous stuff. But nothing with Obama’s fingerprints on it has ever stayed that way, and you can count on this interagency group becoming a monster dedicated in short order to controlling that which Congress has denied them power to control.

Not to mention that the person in charge of this cabal is Heather Zichal, Obama’s climate/energy czar. Zichal is the successor to Carol Browner, who was the instigator behind that fraudulent report which purported to justify the administration’s offshore drilling ban following the 2010 BP oil spill, and she’s hardly distinguished herself in that position – if for no other reason than her propensity to spread lies like manure about Obama’s vigor in the promotion of oil and gas production.

A quick perusal of Zichal’s Wikipedia entry indicates that her background is anything but one which producers of natural gas will find appetizing…

While at Rutgers she had interned at the state chapter of the Sierra Club and was part of a panel interviewing candidates for U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district.^[5] The support of her and other environmentalists helped Democrat Rush D. Holt, Jr. stage an upset victory over Republican incumbent Michael J. Pappas.^[5]Impressed by her sharpness, Holt hired Zichal, and she went to Washington, D.C., where she served as a legislative director for him.^[5][1] She held the same position for RepresentativeFrank Pallone from 2001 to 2002.^[1] She then was a legislative assistant and later director for U.S. Senator John Kerry from 2002 to 2008,^[6][1] She also worked as an assistant for theSenate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.^[7] In these positions she worked on legislation to address climate change, reduce the country’s dependence on oil for energy, and to protect American natural resources.^[8] She also served as a top advisor on energy and environmental issues to the 2004 Kerry presidential campaign and the 2008 Obama presidential campaign^[1][2][5] (having first met Obama when he was lost in one of the Senate buildings and asked her for directions).^[9]

After serving on the Obama-Biden Transition Project in its Energy and Environment Policy Working Group,^[2] where she achieved some public visibility,^[1] she was named to be Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change in December 2008, to serve as deputy to Carol Browner, who was named director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy^[8][10] (as such, Browner’s position was also informally referred to as the “Climate Czar” or “Energy Czar“).^[11] Zichal took office in January 2009.^[1]

When Browner left the White House in March 2011, Zichal took over the general responsibilities of coordinating the administration’s energy and climate policy, now operating from within the U.S. Domestic Policy Council^[12] (the “czar” position itself having been reorganized away by the White House and its funding subsequently abolished by Congress in the mid-April 2011 federal spending agreement that averted a possible government shutdown).^[13][14][15] Zichal and the administration faced a political challenge; with Republicans having taken over the House of Representatives following the 2010 midterm elections, chances of the large-scale climate and energy legislation passing that Browner had worked towards were essentially nil.^[16][1][5] Instead, the administration intended to pursue more modest goals that could attract bipartisan support, such as reducing oil imports and promoting clean or renewable energy sources.^[5] Zichal’s past experience in both legislative and political campaigning was seen as valuable in trying to achieve such goals.^[1][5]

Can’t get any worse than Rush Holt, Frank Pallone, John Kerry, Obama and Browner as mentors. They’ve all demonstrated a deep-seated hatred for conventional domestic energy production and a willingness to throw away sane policy in the name of global warming fantasy. And yet Zichal is being put in charge of the federal government’s efforts to ride herd over shale gas.

At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey has a pretty good take on this stuff…

Hey, this could be good news, too.  Maybe Obama has decided that the federal oversight of fracking activities has become too fragmented for efficient issuance of permits and clearances, and wants to streamline the process.  Getting all of the executive-branch stakeholders together for that effort could relieve a lot of red tape and costs to producers.

Does anyone believe that, though?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?  If the Obama White House wanted that as an outcome, the EO would have been signed in time to get play in the news cycle, with its own press event.  Obama would have declared his support for fracking and oil extraction.  The EO wouldn’t have been snuck out of the West Wing in a Friday night news dump, to be buried by Buffett Rule arguments and demands to see Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

Where Morrissey – if he’s in fact suggesting this at all – is wrong, of course, is that the federal government never streamlines anything. To the extent a common standard is a worthwhile theoretical regulatory goal, you can bet your bottom dollar that the standard the feds would promulgate will be the most economically and practically untenable monster anyone could imagine. And anybody who knows about fracking can tell you no two well sites are the same, and no two frack jobs are the same, and you’ve got to design each drilling plan based on the geography and geology of the site in question. Think a uniform standard is useful to regulate that kind of activity? Think again.

But he’s exactly right that the fact this was put out on a late-Friday docu-dump instead of heralded by a press conference is a sure sign they’re going to use this to strangle fracking – and they’ll try to do it on the sly, with the effects of whatever policy this “interagency working group” comes up with going into effect after the election. And they’re hoping nobody will call them on it in advance, which of course they’ll get lucky with because the legacy media didn’t even report on it outside of the small mention it got from The Hill.

UPDATE: Jeffrey Folks at the American Thinker links the fracking EO to another Solyndra-style debacle, the canceled IPO offering at BrightSource, and sees the same motive we see…

Obama’s plan all along has been to drive up fossil fuel prices in the U.S., subsidize wind and solar with extraordinarily large subsidies and mandates, and collect his own election-year bounty from well-funded environmental groups and green energy investors.  The only ones who’ll be hurt are those boobs all over America who are still toting their guns and clinging to their religion.  But Obama has nothing but contempt for ordinary citizens who will be paying higher energy prices.

And he has nothing but contempt for the free market.  The creation of a fracking council headed by an environmental activist is one more example of this contempt.  Instead of allowing markets to work — and they are working very well, with the production of natural gas increasing by 40% and prices for consumers near all-time lows — the president believes that a single task force, composed of environmental activists and operating under his direct control, should have the power to regulate oil and gas drilling throughout the U.S.

The creation of a task force to regulate fracking should be seen for what it is: an unprecedented power-grab at the expense of the nation’s states, which have always enjoyed the prerogative of regulating drilling within their borders.

Beaurat has been on a mission to gut the Energy Industry since the day he got his first style support check from the Sierra Club. His slavish acquiescence to green doctrines he really couldn’t care less about other than for the fact they support him, is tedious at best and completely annoying in the acceptance of his daily psycho-babble. He wants us to believe he wants every form of energy production anchored in an only alluded to, non-existent energy policy. All of the above: yeah-RIGHT!

In 2008, while campaigning, Beaurat Obama said: “If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” He’s allowed the implementation of an EPA edict (showing no accountability to Congressional oversight) seeing to that goal becoming a reality. Beaurat Obama has circumvented Congress by directing regulatory agencies to engage and implement his “green” agenda.

Any new coal-fired plants won’t be able to emit more than 1,000 pounds of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to produce a megawatt of electricity. 1768 pounds is the number necessary to produce the megawatt.  In order to continue using coal, a plant must spend many millions, and actually billions nationwide, to install carbon capture technology. Green energy proponents see this as an onerous weight for the industry to carry because they know the coal plants must make the consumer pay hundreds more per year, per consumer. The culprit avoids exposure by staying one step removed from the action.

Much of this controversy revolves around the possibility of Mercury emissions being introduced into the environment. There’s no noted effect to human health from Mercury suspended in the air. It’s only when Mercury enters the watershed it becomes a problem for unborn children of pregnant mothers eating large amounts of fish. The water borne Mercury problem was noted in the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland and these reports were noted because of their diet consisting of whale blubber. Other studies of populations eating similar amounts of fish as Americans are noted to be in the Republic of the Seychelles, northeast of Madagascar. They showed no appreciable detriment to pregnant mothers or children in utero. To date the EPA hasn’t made any attempts to find any American child with deficient school performance as a result of eating mercury tainted fish. But they still advertise they’re saving the unborn.

In making electricity production by using coal restrictive, Beaurat Obama, assures the development of a perfect storm affecting employment in America. If you can’t use coal; you don’t need coal miners. If you don’t use coal; you don’t need coal plant workers. If you don’t use coal; you increase the profits of those using alternative energy programs. If you do that; you benefit Obama’s cronies and assure American Industry’s lingering weakness, because China hasn’t missed a step in their developing coal fired industry.

China’s expanding their energy production and foreign supplied energy reserves exponentially. Their coal fired electricity generation in 2010 was 1.6 Billion tons. In 2030 it’s projected to reach 3.1 tons. They’ve invested $15 Billion into conversion technologies to change coal to oil. That investment will reach $65-80 Billion dollars while requiring over 100 million tons of coal to do the job.

Beaurat Obama’s goal of fundamentally changing the landscape of America’s holdings in the 21^st Century is pretty evident: issue edicts with oversight to NO elected element answering to the American people. Then allow unelected agency chiefs to issue their own mandates with NO accountability outside of the agency.

Distance Americans from controlling America. That’s his goal: and you’re letting it happen.

Thanks for listening.

On Monday, the Senate Judiciary A Committee delayed consideration of SB 443, one of many bills filed this Session that seeks to fix the process for handling civil lawsuits against conventional oil and gas operators in the state for alleged environmental damage that may have occurred decades or even a century ago.

Now, with other legislative committee action expected early next week, Hilcorp Energy, the largest producer of crude oil in Louisiana, is speaking out about the impact of these excessive lawsuits on energy businesses.

In a letter recently sent to members of the Senate committee, Hilcorp’s CEO Jeffery Hildebrand wrote, “Hilcorp currently operates in 10 states. But nowhere, not Texas, not Wyoming, and not Alaska, do we operate in a legal environment like Louisiana. In none of the other states that we operate do we face the threat of environmental lawsuits that claim damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars for activities that took place decades ago with little or no ability to actually remediate environmental issues.”

“Unfortunately, legacy lawsuits appear to be a growth industry in Louisiana, with no signs of abating,” he continued and added that if there is no legislative fix to the problem, the “consequences of inaction are dire for our business and for the industry as a whole.”

Hilcorp is an industry leader that has significant investments in Louisiana. According to DNR records, approximately one in every seven barrels of oil extracted in Louisiana resulted from Hilcorp’s production. The company reports contributing more than $1 billion in taxes and royalties to the state since 2007, and injecting an additional $4 billion into Louisiana’s economy through payroll, capital investments and landowner royalties during the same period.

This plea should serve as a wake-up call to every policymaker and citizen in Louisiana hoping to see more jobs and a stronger economy for our state. Clearly inaction is not an option. A small group of legacy lawsuit lawyers are making excessive claims of environmental damage, and then, after extracting and pocketing huge settlements, they change their tunes and agree to much smaller remediation plans – if any is even needed. Executive branch research requested by the state legislature found that more than three quarters of legacy suits filed do not have any evidence of environmental damage according to state evidence standards.

A recent LSU study also showed that because of these abusive legacy suits, Louisiana citizens have lost out on more than 30,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in wages over the past eight years. Can we really afford to continue choosing lawsuit abuse over jobs and investments?