from – The Daily Signal – by Sen. Mike Lee
For the past eight years, President Barack Obama and his allies in Congress have feverishly worked to centralize energy regulatory power in Washington, empowering federal bureaucrats to micromanage how energy producers operate their facilities and run their businesses.
The fundamental problem with centralized regulatory authority is the tendency of Washington bureaucrats to be ignorant of—and often indifferent to—the interests of the people who live in the communities that are affected by their rules.
This isn’t a knock on the men and women who work in the federal bureaucracy, most of whom are well-educated and well-intentioned. But there’s no doubt that a regulator in Washington, D.C., knows less about a coal mine in Sevier County, Utah, than a regulator in Salt Lake City.
But starting in January 2017, we can begin to move all that decision-making power closer to the people.
The incoming Congress and new administration give us the best opportunity in recent memory to put Washington—especially federal energy policy—back on the side of hardworking Americans.
This will require a dual-track approach that simultaneously reins in our hyperactive federal bureaucracy and takes positive steps to return regulatory authority to the states.
We can—and should—start the process of repealing the most harmful and costly federal regulations right away. For President-elect Donald Trump, this means undoing many of his predecessor’s executive orders, like the moratorium on coal leasing.
And on Capitol Hill, we can get to work immediately after the new Congress is sworn in, by using the Congressional Review Act to rescind the laundry list of regulations the Obama administration issued in the past several months.
Much of this can be accomplished in the first 100 days of the new administration. But we must also advance long-term, structural solutions that decentralize regulatory authority out of the federal bureaucracy.
This should begin with a much-needed and fundamental attitude adjustment within administrative agencies (which is one reason I’m extremely encouraged by the nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency), so that Washington’s regulators remember that their job is to work with—not condescend to—the states.
Finally, Congress should work to pass, and get signed into law, legislation that empowers states to resume their rightful role in regulating the energy producers within their borders.
For federal lands states, like Utah, I believe the only fair and sustainable solution is a full transfer of all noncontroversial federal land back to the state governments.
But this is a long-term goal, and in the meantime, we can develop solutions that encourage co-management of public lands and that prevent federal rules from pre-empting or overriding effective regulations implemented by state agencies.
Advancing public policies that support and strengthen the revival of energy production in our country is important for all Americans, but especially for our fellow citizens involved in producing, refining, and transporting our nation’s energy resources—jobs like construction workers, rig and drill operators, and miners—where upwards of 90 percent of workers don’t have, or need, a college degree.
If we want our economy to produce the jobs and wage growth it has in the past, the energy sector is perhaps the best area for the incoming administration to start.
I totally agree! Further, I think it is time for We the People to Self-educate and the Stand up, Speak up, and Show up. It takes “Enlightened Citizens” to save and maintain this Constitutional Republic we were given.
Please join us at conventionofstates.com. We thank you.
in Liberty,
Fred Yerrick
[email protected]
I think it’s way past time to call the Liberal seizure of power in this country just what it is. Communism. The complete micro-management of everything by the central government is a hallmark of what defines Communism.
That is what the “Democrats” have been edging toward for the past 50 years and what Barack Obama has been racing toward for the past 8 years.
All one needs to do to see what the “Democrats” have been doing is to look up the definition of Communism on any reliable non-political information site and see it for yourself. Complete government control of everything to the last letter and ultimate level.
They own health. They own the environment. They own national defense. They own education. They have regulated just about everything else to death!
If they control energy, security, education and health they control it all. And we are right there right now. Our federal government is Communist.
If it can’t be reversed ……. ?
Read the 45 Goals of Communism in America as extracted from the 1958 book “The Naked Communist” by Cleon Skousen. You can still find them listed on the net. It is well worth a half hour of your time.
Tom, you have it correct.
I have been doing this for more than 30 years, whenever I receive a letter, email or meet a politician and he mentions something he will propose in a bill I ask one question. The question, what Section of the Constitution authorizes it? Most time their response is pure bovine manure. It drives the politician up a wall if you ask it at a public meeting. I once had the response, It is something that is done in a democracy. I responded we are a Republic. To which he said where do you get your information. I answered, Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution ever hear of it? I thought he was going to soil is clothes.
Mr. Wilde and Mr. Last, you are spot on.
The political parties both are seeking “collectivism” rather than “individualism” which is our founding fathers thinking. I am really tired of all this talk about whether or not this or that is democratic. It is a republic we have and thank God it is not a democracy, or collectivism yet. I am aware there are people in control or seeking control because they think they know what is best for the world. tWe the people don’t know about them and they have brought our country almost to where they want us. This Global talk is not just talk.