While Barack Obama praises America’s natural gas jobs boom on the campaign trail, within in the walls of the White House he’s using a regulatory trick to kill off the affordable energy and good-paying jobs that safe, clean fracking provides.

“By suddenly reinterpreting a 50-year-old rule that limits truck drivers to 11 hours on the work site at a stretch, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delivered an unexpected victory for environmental activists,” The Washington Examiner’s editorial board writes.

What does that have to do with fracking, and why are environmentalists suddenly obsessed with trucking laws?

“Truckers on drilling sites spend hours each day waiting around until one rig or another needs water or sand. This is why, ever since the 11-hour trucking safety rule was adopted in 1962, truckers who haul water and sand to drilling sites have been exempted. There is no issue of road fatigue, the focus of the 11-hour rule,” The Examiner writes

“The Transportation Department’s reinterpretation eliminates this exemption, disproportionately affecting sites where fracking is employed. Voila – environmental regulation without the hassles of justifying it scientifically, as would be required for an EPA action.”

“This is clearly an indication that somewhere up in the top echelons of this administration, there is a constant battle — a war going on — to try to artificially level the playing field between the oil and gas industry and the renewable [energy] industry,” Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., told The Washington Examiner.

By changing the rules, with no public input or a vote by Congress, Obama has once again pledged his allegiance to the radical environmentalist fringe and not the American people.

A new study by the independent consulting firm Baker & O’Brien finds a new Obama Expensive Gas Rule that Barack Obama is pushing through the EPA, which demanding the use of low-sulfur gasoline, would send gas prices skyrocketing, shut down as many as seven refineries, significantly decrease U.S. gasoline production and double reliance on foreign imports.

Along with the thousand of workers who would lose their jobs under the Obama rule, the study also finds gas prices could increase by as much as $0.25 a gallon, on top of the 200% increase in gas prices seen under the Obama administration.

“Obama’s Expensive Gas Rule is a nuclear weapon in his ongoing war on your pocketbook,” said American Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson.  “Obama is pushing this through his EPA cronies, instead of through Congress, because he knows accountable lawmakers would never let him get away with exploding the price of gas.”

“This is why American Tradition Partnership has made passing the REINS Act a top priority,” said Ferguson. “Under REINS, any proposed rule with an impact greater than $100 million would need to be voted on by Congress.  The idea of having laws voted on my lawmakers instead of imposed by royal decree makes Obama and Gang Green explode with rage, but it’s what the Constitution requires.  There would be no Obama Expensive Gas Rule under the REINS Act.”

Go here to chip in $10 or more to support ATP’s efforts to stop the Obama Expensive Gas Rule.

WASHINGTON – American Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson released the following statement Wednesday evening upon the U.S. House’s passage of H.R. 10, The REINS Act, which requires federal regulations costing more than $100 million be approved by Congress and the President before taking effect.

“The U.S. House of Representatives has taken an important first step to restoring job growth and restoring Congress as our only legislative legislative body by passing the REINS Act.

“American Tradition Partnership has been an early and active advocate for the REINS Act, working closely with Sen. Rand Paul and urging our nationwide grassroots support network to phone, fax, e-mail and write their lawmakers in support of this critically needed reform.

“Instead of the current regime of “regulation without representation” where political activists with federal employee badges write their own rules, major federal regulations that impact Americans must go through a transparent, accountable rulemaking process.

“The question now is will senators join the House and the majority of voters who support the REINS Act?  Will Max Baucus, Ben Nelson, Maria Cantwell, Claire McCaskill and others vote with job creators and their constituents, or will they side with the D.C. establishment and special interests who are choking off job growth?

“American Tradition Partnership, and our growing nationwide army of grassroots supporters, will be watching.”

ATP does not advocate the election or defeat of candidates.  Supported by grassroots members, ATP is a fast-growing non-profit citizens’ group dedicated to fighting environmental extremism and promoting private property rights and responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources.

I need you to call your congressman at 202-224-3131 immediately.

The House is about to vote on the REINS Act.

Ask him or her to vote YES on H.R. 10, the REINS Act.

As you recall, the REINS Act simply requires that any proposed federal regulation with an economic impact greater than $100 million be approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President before it can take effect.

In other words, no more regulation without representation.

The House will begin debate this afternoon.

So please call your congressman 202-224-3131 immediately and ask him or her to vote YES on H.R. 10, the REINS Act.

The D.C. political establishment said the REINS Act would never make it this far.

But American Tradition Partnership, with your support, proved them wrong.

Now we have a chance to get a recorded vote on the REINS Act in the House, and send it to the Senate.

Every vote, and every phone call, counts.  So call today.

And please take just a moment to go here and chip in $25 or more to help us continue the fight in the Senate.

Sincerely,

Donald Ferguson
Executive Director
American Tradition Partnership

P.S.  The House will begin debate on the REINS Act this afternoon and later move to a vote. So please call your congressman 202-224-3131 immediately and ask him or her to vote YES on H.R. 10, the REINS Act.

And please take just a moment to go here and chip in $25 or more to help us continue the fight in the Senate.

UPDATE: I told you last week about the Protect IP Act and the SOPA Act, which would give Obama the power to shut down individual websites.  ATP is fighting to kill both bills.  Thanks to your calls and support the bills are held up in the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, but still alive.  Thank you!!!  ATP will keep fighting until both bills are killed.

“House Rules on Thursday is scheduled to hold a second meeting on the REINS Act, which would require economically significant federal regulations to get congressional approval,” POLITICO’s Morning Energy reports Monday.

“The panel reviewed the act earlier this month, but this time it is preparing a rule that will clear the bill to hit the House floor. The markup is Thursday at 3 p.m. in H-313 of the Capitol,” writes POLITICO.

Hearing information may be found at the House Rules Committee website by clicking here and here.

If your congressman is a member, you may call him or her at 202-225-3121 and ask them to send the REINS Act to the floor for a vote.

The members of the House Rules Committee are:

Rep. David Dreier, Chairman, California

Rep. Pete Sessions, Vice-Chairman, Texas

Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Ranking Minority Member, New York

Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina

Rep. James P. McGovern, Massachusetts

Rep. Rob Bishop, Utah

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Florida

Rep. Rob Woodall, Georgia

Rep. Jared Polis, Colorado

Rep. Richard B. Nugent, Florida

Rep. Tim Scott, South Carolina

Rep. Daniel Webster, Florida

From the Monday, Aug. 30 Wall Street Journal (Page A4)

The [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement] has issued only three new permits to start wells in shallow water since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, according to the agency’s website. The agency issued three to six permits a week prior to the accident, industry officials say.

Louisiana’s lieutenant governor, Scott Angelle, who has participated in talks with Mr. Bromwich’s agency, said the government was effectively shutting down shallow-water drilling.

“Someone is slow-walking this deal,” Mr. Angelle said, referring to shallow-water permits.

The Obama administration says that there is no moratorium on shallow-water drilling…

Despite the fact shallow-water rigs have had no spills and a stellar safety record, radical green activists have targeted them — and the jobs they provide — for extinction.  The elimination of offshore energy exploration would not only send a shattering new ripple of unemployment through an economy already broken by radical green activism, but would send gasoline prices even higher.

Under legislation sought by Western Tradition Partnership, Washington bureaucrats would no longer have the unchecked power to simply make up their own regulations.