The oil industry is well known as having a large special interest in Washington, with many allegations leveled against the industry. These accusations run from saying that the industry is stifling alternative sources to claiming that the oil industry was partially responsible for the war in Iraq. As an extremely important industry that is vital to daily life in American, as well as one that can be hazard to the environment, regulation is considered extremely important for oil companies. Different Governmental organizational entities have control of different issues that could arise, including the DOE(Department of Energy), FERC (Federal Energy Regulation Committee), and EPA (Environmental Protection agency).
The DOE has a division called the Office of Oil and Natural gas which “supports research and policy options to ensure clean, reliable, and affordable supplies of oil and natural gas for American consumers.” The main job of this division is to make sure that no one in the country does without the oil and gas that they need to go about their lives.
The FERC is an agency that acts to regulate the energy industry in several important ways, including the sale of oil and oil pipelines throughout different states. This is important to make sure that different areas of the country are not subjected to vastly different prices and availability of energy.
The EPA is in charge of attempting to regulate the environmental concerns that are so often included in any discussion of the industry. From the intrinsic damage done any time that a car is run to the catastrophic possibilities of a potential oil spill, the EPA must be prepared to deal with the consequences and help to remove the
http://www.ferc.gov/industries/oil.asp
http://www.epa.gov/athens/publications/reports/EPA-600-R03-072-OilComposition.pdf
http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/index.html
When it comes to the Energy Industry there is always the argument of collusion and price fixing. For decades board of director's from various companies have been brought forth to explain there actions to congress. Although, but what many remain to forget is that during the majority of these cases evidence cannot be found leading to collusion or price fixing. This fight has been an age old battle, but the fact is these 'regulatory entities' are simply the arm of an already blundering bureaucracy.
ReplyDelete-Timothy D. Vallario