EPA More Emboldened With Each Win

As regular readers of my blog know, I have great anxiety about EPA taking control of rules and regulations of fracking nationwide. I think it's just a matter of time. Every "win" by the EPA emboldens the staff. Their latest win was in the Senate where the EPA prevailed in its authority to declare CO2 and water vapor hazardous substances. Water vapor contributes about 76% to greenhouse gases; a much smaller contribution is CO2 -- about 24%.

Be that as it may, here in Boston, the EPA is about to enforce rules on phosphorus discharge into the Charles River. I have no problem with the goal. What concerns me is that the dollar figures to do this are quite remarkable: it will cost anywhere from $6,000 to $120,000/acre to meet the EPA guidelines.  When the figures vary by that amount, it tells me that no one really knows how to do this, and what it will really cost. As a very astute Bostonian noted, there's "a big difference between $6,000 and $120,000."Even without an MBA, one could figure that out.

It would cost the city of Milford $50 million to retro-fit its streets and highways. The annual city budget is $77 million. (A jobs bill? Maybe the temporary census workers could get jobs re-routing drainage systems.)

The program proposed by the EPA has never been tried on a scale this huge. Detractors are worried this is an experiment with a very high cost that has not been proven to work. The EPA says to "trust them."

By the way, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the "idealism" of the Barack Obama's inner circle. This speaks volumes how rabid the left is and the one industry they loathe is the oil industry.

There may be good reason for companies like BEXP to accelerate their drilling programs.