By accident, of course.
(Politico) — The EPA is getting blamed for a lot of things these days, but Lisa Jackson says rising gasoline prices are not her agency’s fault.
The EPA administrator insisted Tuesday that upward pressure on gas prices “is not coming from any environmental or health regulation.”
“The standards that we set to protect our health are so often and so inaccurately blamed for increasing prices and economic challenges that I want to make clear that that’s not what is happening right now,” she told a conference hosted by the Energy Information Administration.
Nor is increasing demand for fuel in nations such as China and India to blame for cost spikes, Jackson added — at least not yet.
“What appears to be the most important factor at work is our dependence on imported energy,” she said. “This is what leaves us vulnerable to jumps in prices. When something changes thousands of miles away, the American people pay for it at the pump.”
And why are we dependent on imported energy? Because agencies like the EPA are forcing oil companies to cancel domestic drilling plans.
(Fox News) — Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight.
Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”
The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.
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