The EPA and Emissions from Drilling

It never fails to amaze me just how predictable government agencies are.  Today's example comes from the EPA.  The Inspector General of the EPA issued a report this afternoon in which he concludes that the agency has insufficient and inaccurate data with regard to emissions that may result from drilling oil and gas wells.  The Inspector General outlines all sorts of shortcomings with the data gathered by EPA, and he also finds great fault with the methods used by the agency to gather the data.  In other words, the EPA's own internal review concludes that the agency has no valid basis on which to reach any conclusions about possible air pollution from oil and gas drilling.  So far, so good.  But then comes the predictable conclusion:  after stating just how inaccurate the method of gathering information is and explaining that the EPA has only extremely faulty data about the subject, the Inspector General then just announces that the data the EPA has does not show enough pollution.  If that sounds crazy, it is because it is crazy.  Just imagine a parallel situation:  the policeman is on the witness stand to testify about how fast a car was going.  After being questioned, the witness admits that the equipment to determine the car's speed was not working properly so that there really is no way to know how fast the car was going.  From that, the jury then concludes that the car must have been going much faster than the policeman estimated.  As I said above, this is nuts.

When the chance comes to switch the cuts from sequestration around, I strongly suggest that the full amount of the cuts get taken first from the EPA.  Those folks are insane!