The director of the federal agency responsible for the drilling permit logjam in the Gulf of Mexico has said his agency is too understaffed to address the slowdown in permits — but he now plans to divert his already limited staff resources to the additional regulation of oilfield service providers and contractors. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement exists primarily to regulate oil and gas companies — but Director Michael Bromwich insists he has the legal authority to regulate drilling rig suppliers and other contractors as well. …
Andy Puzder knows a thing or two about job creation. As the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, he’s at the helm of 3,150 Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants across the country and around the world. But, from his perspective, few federal bureaucrats know what he does. That’s why he decided to partner with David Newton, professor of entrepreneurial finance at Westmont College, to write the book, “Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It.” He spoke at Heritage yesterday and sat down with us to talk …
Ohio small-businessman Jack Buschur has a message for Washington about job creation: Get out of the way. In a new video released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Buschur explains how a slow economy and costly compliance with government regulations forced him to lay off 12 workers from the company he founded in 1978 — Buschur Electric Inc. “The regulations and the paperwork problems government throws at small business today is just becoming tremendously overwhelming,” Buschur says. “So much of it has nothing to do with safety …
As gas prices continue to climb — reaching as high as $5.75 to $6.03 a gallon in some places — the Department of the Interior remains stingy with deepwater drilling permits. Since February 2011, the administration has issued an average of just 1.3 deepwater permits per month — a 78 percent monthly reduction from the historical monthly average of 5.8 permits a month, according to the latest Gulf Permit Index from Greater New Orleans Inc. The slow pace of permitting will likely eventually result in production declines — and that …
Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) — a self-described “pro-life, pro-gun constitutional conservative” — never expected to serve on the House Appropriations Committee. As he puts it, he didn’t come to Washington to be “a part of spending money.” Now, even though he serves on Appropriations, he still makes spending cuts his focus. “I’m thankful leadership has allowed me to be who I am, to ask tough questions and to take a different approach in the committee process,” Graves said yesterday at Heritage during The Bloggers Briefing. “My hopes are that we …
A group of senators is urging President Obama to reconsider a draft executive order to require would-be government contractors to disclose political contributions. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) yesterday sent a letter signed by 25 of their Republican colleagues to the president to ask him to keep politics out of federal contracting. “We urge you not to issue the draft EO,” the letter states. “To ensure that taxpayers receive the best value for federal …
Nearly a year after the administration first halted oil drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico, stories of economic hardship still surface, all with the same theme: The slow pace of permitting punishes all those whose livelihood depends on the oil and gas industry — even those who had nothing to do with the spill and whose safety records are impeccable. Fergus Hodgson of the Louisiana-based Pelican Institute for Public Policy reports just such a story today. Writing in The Pelican Post, Hodgson profiles Cliffe Laborde, who, as the owner …
The debt limit debate waits for the return of a recess-refreshed Congress, but if conservatives are ready for it, they can leverage the issue to enact spending caps and advance the budget the House passed last week, says former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. “The Republicans should come back the day after the recess, pass the debt limit and attach to it caps to total spending that match the budget they just passed,” Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said this week at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing. …
A year ago today, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico cost the lives of 11 men and threatened untold damage to the ecosystem. It was an unprecedented disaster, and the tragic loss of life it entailed made it all the more imperative that such an accident never repeat itself. In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, the disaster response proved heroic: The crew of a Tidewater supply vessel rescued the 115 survivors of the explosion in little more than an hour. But in …
Last year in the midst of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Heritage sent a team to the Gulf Coast to view the clean-up effort firsthand. At the time, the deepwater drilling moratorium was only beginning to disrupt the region’s economy. Today, one year after the oil spill, the Obama administration’s anti-drilling agenda poses a serious threat to recovery. Heritage recently returned to the Gulf Coast to hear from business owners. Partnering with the Institute for Energy Research, we produced a video featuring Leslie Bertucci, owner of R and …
