Finally, The AP's "Big Story": Judge Rules Obama's Ban On Fracking Illegal -- June 22, 2016

Earlier today I said there seemed to be so much energy news it was hard to keep up.  I completely missed this story and would not have seen it had it not been for a reader who sent me the link (thank you very much). I posted the story and remarked that it was a big story, wondering why mainstream media had not picked it up. Someone must have seen that. The AP now calls it "the big story": Judge: US agency lacks authority to set rules on fracking.

Wow.

The story is hard to find in the mainstream media. It's not at Yahoo!Finance. It's not on the first page of Finance Google. Drudge Report? Nope. Huffington Post? Nope. But there it is, finally, over at the AP.

A judge ruled Tuesday that federal regulators lack the authority to set rules for hydraulic fracturing, dealing another setback to the Obama administration's efforts to tighten how fossil fuels are mined.
U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl said the Bureau of Land Management can't set the rules because Congress has not authorized it to do so. The judge, who was nominated by Obama in 2011, wrote that the court's role is not to decide whether hydraulic fracturing is good or bad for the environment, but to interpret whether Congress has given the Department of Interior legal authority to regulate the practice.

So, the big stories the past couple of days:

• Panama Canal expansion completed; ready for the "big ships" next week
• the Tesla - SolarCity story
• Obama's regulation banning fracking overturned
• Dakota Access Pipeline allowed to proceed "under" tribal burial grounds in Iowa
• crude oil hitting $50
• the rise of India