President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Friday creating an interagency group to oversee development of natural gas from shale deposits as companies push the administration to approve terminals to export the fuel.
Vast new sources of shale gas, which drillers access with techniques including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have given the United States hope that it could become a natural gas exporter in coming years.
Environmentalists and health groups, however, say that fracking operations near homes and schools can pollute air and water.
"It is vital that we take full advantage of our natural gas resources, while giving American families and communities confidence that natural and cultural resources, air and water quality, and public health and safety will not be compromised," the executive order said.
The working group will include representatives from at least 13 federal agencies including the Departments of Defense, Interior, and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency....MORE
The National Archives is having trouble keeping up with the E.O.'s they are only current through March 16 (National Defence Resources Preparedness, #13603).
Previously:
Here Come the Presidential Executive Orders
From an email response I sent a friend during the budget ceiling negotiations last August regarding the options available to the Government and the Fed:
I have some arcane knowledge of the workings of the Fed and see no impediments there. As to the trust funds, the enabling legislation either exists or could probably be more easily written than the ceiling legislation.The link goes to a 213 page PDF under the imprimatur of the University of Colorado Law School titled:
I keep coming back to the President though. Executive orders give so much latitude, especially when couched in state of emergency terms, that my reading is the Exec can do pretty much as he pleases,
Back in 2008 some barrister types were making that argument re: climate change policy, potential constitutional crisis be damned.THE BOUNDARIES OF EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY
Using Executive Orders to Implement
Federal Climate Change Policy
Since that Aug. 2 email Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has called on the President to declare a State of Emergency, bypass Congress and unilaterally hire 15 million unemployed at an average $40,000 and the President has stated “We’re not going to wait for Congress.”
Here's the latest, via UPI:
WH: Obama to use executive authority more
"FDR's `Dictatorship Plan': Echoes"
