The Tyranny Of The Regulatory Regime

The manner in which environmentalists have exploited the web of regulations surrounding energy production in this country to sandbag and roadblock domestic energy production is nothing short of a travesty. Regulations exist to protect the public and the environment, not as a vehicle for implementing ideological agendas.
Ironically enough, one of the best examples of regulatory excess isn’t some attack on an oil drilling project or pipeline expansion but rather the opposition to a wind power project off the coast of New England. The Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound has been waylaid by opposition from a small, but well-monied and vocal, opponents for years. Not because the project poses any real regulatory of safety issues, but because the opponents don’t want their view of the ocean marred.

The Cape Wind experience also shows that it does not take much to gum up the regulatory gears for new projects of this sort. Opposition to Cape Wind has been driven by a few dozen families willing to invest their time and money to influence the regulatory process — and it’s worked. It does not matter whether a proposed project is popular with local residents, as a relatively small group of naysayers can exploit existing regulatory requirements to slow things down in the hope of eventually killing the project altogether. If other offshore wind projects are to succeed where Cape Wind has (thus far) failed, they will must prepare for similar opposition, and encourage regulatory reforms that will streamline wind project development and approval.

You can pretty much replace Cape Wind with, say, the Keystone Pipeline in this example and see that the problems are similar.
The government’s regulatory regime has become less about protecting citizens and ensuring responsible development and business practices than about pushing political agendas. In fact, this excessive power of regulation is at the heart of much of the corruption in government. It’s like a protection racket. The government’s regulatory regime is so all-powerful that those wanting to find their way through the maze must pay the proper tribute.

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