Energy and the Environment: Elections Have Consequences

While California is busily trying to set national energy policy, the Trump Administration counterattacks.

Headline: Trump administration OKs leasing for new oil drilling in California [bold added]

Pump jacks near Bakersfield (KVPR)

Under the plan advanced Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will offer new oil and gas leases across more than 1 million acres between Bakersfield and Santa Barbara. The leases will be the first made available on federal land in the region in five years...The BLM released its court-ordered study of fracking in the form of a 174-page environmental impact report in April. This week, the agency officially signed off on the report, concluding that the adverse impacts of fracking could be moderated.

Environmentalists will have difficulty halting the energy leases, which will occur on Federal lands over which the State has no jurisdiction. And California, which is leading the crusade against fossil fuels, does allow drilling on State land:

Still, over the past year, California has approved hundreds of new wells on state land, and the demand for oil in California has remained robust.

For decades progressives have expanded the EPA's powers. Now that someone else is in charge, they don't like it.

Related: EPA: San Francisco’s ‘Homeless Crisis’ Impacting Water Quality

“'piles of feces'” on sidewalks and streets in these cities is becoming all too common.”

“The EPA is concerned about the potential water quality impacts from pathogens and other contaminants from untreated human waste entering nearby waters.”

When we're on the receiving end of EPA over-reach, it's not as much fun.