Interagency Working Group For Fracking Oversight

This week President Obama ordered to create a panel with various government agencies as its members, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department and others. The goal of this new group is to revamp the natural gas industry regulations and coordinate federal oversight of hydraulic fracturing.

Thanks to the "controversial" fracking technique, the natural gas market has experience a strong increase in supply, but no adequate demand to offload it. As a result natural gas prices have recently hit new, $2 lows; we haven't seen these price levels in a decade. Many industry experts hope that the new regulations will promote greater use of natural gas, but there is some skepticism among them as well. After all, it's an election year, and President Obama has to make certain promises and commitments to get a shot at winning in November. Hopefully, the new oversight group will not get bogged down in red tape and become just another government program that sets out to simplify regulations, but falls short of its expectations.
Obama orders panel for fracking oversight; Aim is to ensure federal coordination