Obama DOE Uses CA Storage Leak to Target NatGas Industry
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." - Rahm Emanuel, when he was Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff. It seems the Obama Administration lives by that motto. Using the California Aliso Canyon methane leak crisis, the Obama Administration has convened an alphabet soup of federal agencies to put natural gas storage facilities--all of them, nationwide--through a new anal exam. You may recall a natural gas storage leak occurred in southern Cali that went on for months (see Cali Crisis Being Used to Promote Ban on NatGas Storage). In the wake of that crisis, using it as an excuse, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) launched a new Interagency Task Force on Natural Gas Storage Safety. The purpose of the group will be to study the Aliso Canyon crisis as well as hold workshops and "encourage" best practices with regard to natgas storage. Translation: new regulations will come along from the EPA and other super-aggressive federal agencies to further regulate the oil and gas industry--something the U.S. Constitution leaves up to the individual states...
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