Well, So Much for Natural Gas to Replace Coal -- You Have To Wonder if Gazprom Has Infiltrated the EPA

The EPA is poised to shut down hundreds of coal-fired utility plants. That is old news and most folks were not concerned about it. Yes, it would cost utilities billions of dollars which would be passed down to consumers, but spread across a large consumer base, making monthly utility increases manageable for most folks. Closing down the coal-fired utility plants would also destroy tens of thousands of jobs, but job creation/stability is not one of the EPA's mandates.

Most folks were not concerned about the ban on coal because they knew the utilities could switch to natural gas. Now that the EPA is on the cusp to ban fracking in the US, that option (switching to natural gas) is dead. Banning fracking will destroy the domestic natural gas industry, and, of course, make the closure of coal-fired utility plants that much more problematic for consumers.

So, if things go as planned for the environmentalists and the EPA, by July, 2012, there will no longer be talk of adequate natural gas for the US, the domestic natural gas industry will be destroyed, the Bakken boom will be over, the Williston Basin will implode, and the domestic oil industry will be destroyed.

Some folks think a moratorium on fracking would allow "us" to "catch our breath." Folks, it doesn't work that way. A moratorium on  fracking will last a minimum of two years, and in the meantime the oil companies that can will move overseas. The others will go away, literally and figuratively.

The good news: there will be more than enough affordable housing in Williston and the man-camps will be a thing of the past.

I am waiting for T. Boone Pickens, the #1 proponent of natural gas as the America's energy bridge to a renewable energy future, to weigh in on this. The fact that he hasn't suggested that a) I have overstated the case; or, b) TBP is going to be blindsided.

My concern is that TBP sees EPA regulations/federal fracking permits simply as a bureaucratic exercise. If so, he doesn't understand the Bakken boom. Ask the Louisiana folks how that Gulf moratorium worked out for them.