Five Job-Killing Energy Policy Disasters That Are Creating Some Private-Sector Shutdowns

Losing a job, being furloughed, or not knowing when your next paycheck is coming are all very serious, stressful experiences. So the EPW Republican staff hope that the Obama Administration takes the government shutdown as a learning experience. Maybe now they can consider the furloughs and cancelled paychecks they create in the private sector through their massive over-regulation of American energy. What about the burdens that places on American farmers, manufacturers, and consumers?

Here are some of the worst of the Administration's job-killing energy policy disasters:

5. Obama's "War on Coal" is very real, and it's costing Americans their jobs

Recently, for instance, the EPA revoked a permit for the Mingo Coal Company in West Virginia, which could cause the company to shut down completely. Read more here.

4. The unnecessary drilling moratorium in Gulf of Mexico killed thousands of jobs

In 2010, the Administration literally shut down all offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of jobs were lost during the Administration's moratorium. Workers were furloughed for more than a year, and some were forced to split from their families as they travelled to find work overseas. Read more.

3. Power plants are under intense attack through unattainable federal mandates

Brayton Point Station, a modernized coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, will be retired in 2017, leading to the job loss of 240 employees. Its owners cited the "significant capital to meet environmental regulations" as a major reason they were forced to shut down a plant that can supply power to over 1.5 million homes in the region. Read more here.

2. Federal bureaucracies like the Interior Department put fishermen out of work

The Department of Interior (Interior) denied an extension of the 40-year operating permit for Drakes Bay Oyster Company (Drakes Bay) in Point Reyes, Calif. Interior prefers the location to be idle rather than a place to farm oysters. The location of Drakes Bay bothers environmentalists and their allies at the National Park Service who believe federal lands are only appropriate for their "chosen" uses, and further based the decision to shut down the oyster farm on a controversial scientific review. The oyster farm was harvesting oysters well before the federal government designated the area around it as a "National Seashore" and should be encouraged, not shut down. Unfortunately, Drakes Bay is currently engaged in what has thus far been a losing battle with Interior in an attempt to stay open and maintain the oyster farming jobs. Read more.

1. And these lost jobs are supposed to be offset by the Administration subsidizing efforts like Solyndra?

The Obama Administration touted Solyndra, Inc., a solar company that received a Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee of $535 million, as the beginning of a "a brighter and more prosperous future" for green energy development in the United States. But even with the help of taxpayer-funded loans and refinancing arranged by DOE, the company had to file for bankruptcy and 1,100 workers were fired. It was later discovered that DOE and the Office of Management and Budget had been concerned about the security of the loan to Solyndra, but the Administration forged ahead anyway.

Click here to see Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, speak on American energy issues and jobs and the Administration's regulatory effect on them.

 

-30-