Drill, Baby, Drill. Is it more acceptable when Democrats pursue it?

[cali]

How the Obama Administration Is Making Fracking on Public Lands Easier

The rules were written by the drilling industry and will be streamlined into effect by a new intergovernmental task force, established by the president, to promote fracking.

http://www.alternet.org/fracking/how-obama-administration-making-fracking-public-lands-easier

Obama's Natural Gas Support Signals Bright Fracking Future

President Barack Obama emphasized his administration's support for natural gas during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, making an implicit commitment to hydraulic fracturing as a tool to lower carbon pollution despite fervent opposition to the controversial drilling practice among environmental groups.
The president credited natural gas with bringing jobs to the American energy sector, and said it could even help lower carbon emissions contributing to climate change by serving as a “bridge fuel” while renewable technologies improve and develop. He promised to cut red tape and make sure that new factories using natural gas can be built quickly.

While never uttering the term “hydraulic fracturing,” or any of its variants, the president displayed his continued support for the drilling technique that has many of his environmental allies up in arms. Obama didn't need to say the words in order to get his point across, according to Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP partner David W. Bogan.

“Implicit in his speech is the continued use of fracking technology,” Bogan said. “If we're going to have a reliance on natural gas, then the unstated policy is that somehow or another, fracking projects will be allowed to continue. He said it without saying it.”

Fracking regulation has been left to the states, with some places like Pennsylvania embracing the controversial technique and others like New York enacting a moratorium while state regulators study potential environmental and health impacts.

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http://www.law360.com/articles/504987/obama-s-natural-gas-support-signals-bright-fracking-future


The Obama administration is in a bit of hot water for failing to conduct an environmental impact report before allowing permits for fracking in central California.

U.S. District Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose ruled that the federal government violated U.S. environmental law by declining to perform an environmental impact study on fracking in the Monterey Formation.

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http://www.dailytech.com/Obama+Administration+in+Trouble+for+Leasing+CA+Public+Lands+for+Fracking/article30311.htm

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/01/07/days-before-casselton-oil-train-explosion-president-obama-signed-bill-hastening-fracking-permitting-nd-public-lands

The Administration has shut out environmental groups on the issue- and groups concerned about adverse public health impacts:



Over 1 Million Say “No” to Fracking on Public Lands - See more at: http://www.bcaction.org/2013/08/23/over-1-million-say-no-to-fracking-on-public-lands/#sthash.G9jUsLkh.dpuf

http://www.americansagainstfracking.org/press-room/comments-call-on-obama-to-ban-fracking-on-public-lands/

Over 200 Groups Call on President Obama to Re-Open Investigations into Connection Between Fracking and Water Contamination in Texas

http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science/science-a-environmental/49651-over-200-groups-call-on-president-obama-to-re-open-investigations-into-connection-between-fracking-and-water-contamination-intexas.html

Doctors Call On President Obama For More Regulation On Fracking

More than 1,000 doctors and other health care professionals are calling on President Obama to take steps to protect Americans from the risks posed by fracking.

On Thursday, Environment America delivered a letter with more than 1,000 signatures from health care professionals that asked Obama to declare certain areas in the U.S. off-limits to fracking and to ensure that fracking is no longer exempt from environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. The letter outlined the dangers fracking poses to health and the environment, including drinking water contamination, carcinogenic air pollution, acute and chronic health effects, and greenhouse gas emissions.

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http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/20/3314651/doctors-fracking/

Congress and the Administration are giving big oil and gas just about everything they want, despite more and more info on the dangers:

http://www.environmentamerica.org/reports/ame/fracking-numbers

Some people here are running around touting the new diesel use regulation. Window dressing. Inconsequential.

The agency’s action, however, will have very little overall effect on fracking, since only about 2% of oil and gas operations in the country use diesel. The new measure also leaves many forms of diesel unregulated.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-administration-diesel-fracking-20140211,0,4568510.story#ixzz2uT6EPU6G

[Maedhros]

1. If Democrats can accept that the President can order U.S. citizens executed

without due process, what won't they accept?