Working in the US….. Maybe

The Price of Business

Driving over the prairies one notices the changes, new homes, business and old homes and businesses gone. It is and ever changing landscape that remains the same. Grasses grow, animals graze and life moves on.

Scattered among the rolling hills of the high plains are numerous oil wells, some places spotty, other places very numerous. Drilling rigs rise up over the plains, looking like christmas trees at night. New jobs are being created as new holes are bored into the ground. With new wells come more jobs, setting the pumps in place, more oil pipe, tanks, support equipment and the maintenance of keeping the pumps running. Jobs in the oil patch are good paying jobs and give a boost to the local economy.

Here is a rub, why are not more holes being bored in the ground? Lots of things for one to look at. The so called war in the middle east, conflicts in other parts of the world and domestic policy. Domestic policy feeds lots of anger and it also feeds lots of wallets.

If there was more oil drilling/exploration in the US lots of the problems in the slumping economy could be eased. More people could be put to work, there would be more taxes and more spending on all levels.

President of the USA comes out and says there needs to be more oil production in the US. A very good sounding comment but it is hollow, for it is the EPA that issues permits for drilling and if the EPA does not want to, they can withhold permits. The president knows that and that is why he can make good sounding sound bites and look good, a very good posturing position for the political minded president.

So why doesn’t the EPA issue more permits when the president says we need more oil production, because the laws are made by congress and written by the bureaucrats. The president does not make laws, he only signs or vetoes laws. So who id the EPA responsible to, supposedly it is the citizens of the US. They are supposed to make decisions that are for the common welfare of the country. Like many agencies in government the EPA has developed an agenda that does not always look out for the common welfare of the people. Instead they listen to the wishes of a few special interest people. In this case a small group referred to as environmentalists. The tail is wagging the dog. So this begs a question, why does the public servant, EPA do what’s good for the country? Or why do we let agencies dictate to us our lifestyle?

The oil patch is but one industry that has been stymied by the EPA and the environmentalists. They battle to stop coal and nuclear fired electric generating plants, they battle the farmers on the use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that help crop production. These environmental rules push up the tab for living and cost jobs. Under the guise of health concerns the EPA stops lots of projects and or makes them more costly.

Stop and look at many jobs have been pushed overseas because of environmental rules, plastic industry, steel mills and even lumbering. These are well paying jobs that are no longer in the states. Does that mean that we are now killing people in these foreign countries because these dirty jobs are no longer in the US? That is one of the reasons jobs went overseas, they were harmful to our health. It must be okay to harm a foreigner’s health?

Back to the middle east and the so called war. What purpose is it over there? Are people being killed over there because of the dirty jobs we don’t want in the US? Is lead poisoning but a secondary killer over there? Will the real culprit be the banned jobs?

Where does the power really lie? We get mad at the politicians and rightly so but where are decisions being made that impact our lives? Presidents have some influence yet in the long run it is the bureaucrats that have the impact on the day to day life. There is no check or balance for the different government agencies. Congress tries but because of political bickering gains are minimal.

Today the dirty industries of the rust belt are some of the cleanest because of clean air technology, automobiles run cleaner than ever and coal fired plants are but a whisper of the junk they used to belch. These industries meet the criteria of today but are vilified by a few and government agencies are used to keep the industry from prospering or growing.

When I fill up at the gas pump it is not the politician I am mad at, although they are partly to blame, it is the faceless bureaucrat I should be kicking at instead of goads.

Domestic Policy has a great influence and it used to be a policy that focused on the common welfare of the people not the ideals of a few.