WSJ: Obama’s Regulations May Put Oil Production at Risk

The International Energy Agency made big news Monday with a report predicting the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer in about five to eight years.

But that’s not a sure thing thanks to President Barack Obama, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.

“The biggest potential threat may come from federal regulation in Mr. Obama's second term,” Journal editors write. “Though he tried to take credit for the fracking revolution in his second debate with Mitt Romney, his EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] has long wanted to supplant state regulators and will grab any opportunity to do so.” Fracking is a new way to produce oil and natural gas.

Hopefully the president’s worst instincts can be reined in by a united front of Democrats and Republicans, the editorial states.

“Perhaps the election of pro-fracking Democrats like soon-to-be Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota (home to the monster Bakken Shale field) can give the new energy revolution some needed bipartisan buy-in.”

So far the U.S. oil and gas production boom have received little help from Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush, who have focused on renewable alternatives, Journal editors say.

Advocates of increased oil production will now have to beat back environmentalist opponents.

“The Sierra Club and other environmentalists are demonizing fracking the way they have coal, never mind that increased use of natural gas instead of coal is helping to reduce carbon emissions,” the editorial states.