US House: Votes To "Repeal" Obama Methane Emissions Rule -- February 3, 2017

Can't touch this:

U Can't Touch This, MC Hammer From Rigzone:

US House repeals Obama rule on methane emissions from oil and gas operations; Senate expected to follow; Trump will sign

My hunch: American school kids are getting a huge education in how government works. Up front, in-your-face, we have an activist president who has distracted / attracted the mainstream media, while behind the scenes, the US House and US Senate just keep moving along with business.

More Obama rules to follow, including:

This is the first repeal of President Obama's policies that Congress is sending to President Trump’s desk,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, in a statement.

“Fittingly, it will bring relief to Americans hurt by years of overreach and over-regulation.

We are repealing the Department of Interior’s stream protection rule—a rule the Obama administration pushed through at the last minute that was designed to decimate coal country.”

Meanwhile, it's just a matter of time before the president makes it official: the US will be withdrawing from Paris climate accord, joining other countries, including Canada, which, if I remember correctly was the first country to withdraw -- some years ago.

****************************

Oil Patch Workers Being Recalled To Work

From Rigzone:

Now that oil prices are stable and above $50 per barrel, the energy industry’s depleted workforce is being called back into the field – but there are far fewer candidates with an ear to the ground.

As many as 350,000 oilfield workers lost their jobs during the downturn, which stretched beyond two years in a much lower for much longer down cycle. But the U.S. rig count is on the upswing, led by a frenzy in the Permian Basin, and companies need bodies at the wells.

 ****************************

Unintended Consequences

Politics 101

Pundits suggest President Trump was a "bit rash" in some of his tweets and actions in his first two weeks as president.

It should be noted that during much of this period he had the advice of only two "White House counselors," the wild and crazy Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon because the progs refused to confirm his cabinet nominees who, compared to KC and SB, were seasoned, middle-of-the-road, calm, deep-thinking men and women who might have tempered some of Trump's actions, and provided a counter-point to KC and SB.

But the progs refused to confirm his nominees, and Trump was talking to himself, KC and SB. What could possibly go wrong?

Once his nominees like Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson, and others are on board, one can expect a somewhat-different White House. Or not.

 ****************************

Unintended Consequences

Protesting 101

From PennEnergy:

Dakota Access oil pipeline protesters who tried to set up a new camp on private land undermined the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's efforts to stop the $3.8 billion project, tribal Chairman Dave Archambault says.

Archambault in recent weeks has been pushing protesters to leave their flood-prone main encampment on federal land between the reservation and the pipeline route and asking that activism be spread around the U.S. He said efforts by some to establish a camp Wednesday on nearby higher ground "do not represent the tribe."

Authorities arrested 74 protesters, including American Indian activist Chase Iron Eyes, after they set up teepees Wednesday on land owned by Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners.

Protesters said they were peacefully assembling on land they believe rightfully belongs to American Indians. The Morton County Sheriff's Office initially reported 76 arrests but later said two were protesters accused of unrelated drug offenses.

The new camp site was west of the main encampment that for months has housed hundreds and sometimes thousands of people who support the tribe's position that the pipeline threatens their drinking water and Native American cultural sites. The pipeline would carry oil from North Dakota through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The route would go under Lake Oahe, a large reservoir along the Missouri River.

Energy Transfer Partners disputes the tribe's arguments and says the pipeline will be safe.

A few hundred people still remain in the main camp, which is being cleaned up this week in advance of spring flooding that could carry any remaining refuse into the Missouri River. Archambault in recent weeks has called for the camp to disband, and late Wednesday he urged people who have left to stay away.

"In these past few weeks at camp, I see no reflection of our earlier unity, and without unity we lose," he said.

Iron Eyes, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress last fall, remained jailed Thursday and unavailable for comment, a spokesman said. Iron Eyes told The Associated Press last week that he and others feel a need to "keep up the pressure" because "right now the will of the public is being expressed by a president that does not represent the majority in this country."