This Could Be the Story of the Week -- And There Have Been Some Incredible Stories This Week -- Sort Of Related To the Bakken

Governor Moonbean Fires Anti-Oil Bureaucrats!

Governor Brown, California: drill, drill, drill.

Hell must be freezing over.

Link here to Los Angeles Times.

Late last year, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for a top state regulator to ease key requirements for companies seeking to tap California's oil. The official balked.

Relaxing rules on underground injection, a risky method of oil extraction common in the state, would violate environmental laws, wrote Derek Chernow, then head of the Department of Conservation, in a memo obtained by The Times.

The process, in which a rush of steam, water and chemicals flushes oil from old wells, had been linked to spills, eruptions and a Kern County worker's death. The federal government had asked the state to tighten its regulations, but the oil industry complained that the stringent rules were killing jobs.

A week after Chernow wrote his memo, Brown had him fired, along with a deputy, Elena Miller. The governor appointed replacements who agreed to stop subjecting every injection project to a top-to-bottom review before issuing a permit.

Brown's decision to side with energy interests over his regulators reflects the economic and political pressures on the governor during his return engagement in Sacramento. The economy is still sluggish in the wake of a deep recession, and unemployment remains high.

Although Brown has fought offshore drilling and sued oil companies throughout his career, making him a favorite of environmentalists, he now talks of tossing cumbersome regulations to revive the economy. The oil industry, in particular, employs tens of thousands of Californians, many of them in Kern County, where the jobless rate is 14.5%.

It is generally thought that Governor Brown is in the twilight of his political career. It's nice to think that he may be actually feeling the pain of the unemployed, and no longer worried about re-election, is doing whatever is necessary to help some dads get back to work.

This is an incredible story. I know the realists and the cynics will say this is just political posturing -- although I can't figure out what that posturing would be -- I like to think that the governor truly feels the pain of the unemployed.