President Obama says two of his biggest priorities are jobs and renewable energy. Perhaps he should tell his regulators to help, not hinder, energy projects because some of their most recent actions are killing them and the accompanying jobs. In the process, they're making us even more reliant on foreign oil.

Historically America's energy sector has been one of the strongest drivers of our economy. The oil and gas industry alone employs more than 9 million people.

But that industry is under siege.

In the wake of the Gulf oil spill, the Interior Department imposed a six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling permits - over the objections of a federal judge. Oil producers temporarily have shifted employees to other jobs, many of which are in countries like Brazil. They warn of massive job losses if the ban continues.

Now, Congress is proposing higher taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Other energy sectors aren't faring much better.

Some 381 energy projects - most of which produce renewable energy - are tangled in red tape. Clearing them could provide 250,000 jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that $560 billion in direct and private investments is waiting on the sidelines for permits.

Here in Washington, environmental activists and hobby farmers near White Salmon are trying to scuttle a wind farm that would provide electricity to 20,000 families. They say it will ruin the view in the Columbia Gorge.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is targeting one of the nation's biggest producers of renewable energy - biomass plants.

Currently some 100 biomass plants burn organic waste material - mainly wood - to generate electricity. It has tremendous potential on the Olympic Peninsula where many sawmills have been devastated by the prolonged housing slump. In fact, at Sierra Pacific's modern, high-tech sawmill in Aberdeen, electricity sales from its biomass plant are what's keeping the mill operating.

But now the EPA is proposing to impose new emission standards for new and existing industrial biomass boilers. Industry representatives say the new regulations are so onerous they threaten to shut down existing biomass power plants and are derailing plans for new facilities.

Georgia Power, which last year won approval from state regulators to convert its 163 megawatt coal-fired power plant to wood biomass, announced it was shelving those plans because of the EPA proposal.

A study by Fisher International estimates the new boiler regulations could cost 17,000 direct jobs and 72,000 indirect jobs. The potential loss throughout the supply chain could be as high as 185,000 jobs.

Industry experts say the way the EPA has configured the rule makes compliance virtually impossible. Bob Cleaves, president and CEO of the Biomass Power Association, says, "No such boiler can achieve all of the emissions standards that EPA is proposing in their rules."

Some suggest that the aggressive regulatory approach is intentional - a way to implement a cap-and-trade system without going through Congress. The costly and controversial cap-and-trade legislation supported by President Obama and congressional Democrats continues to face fierce opposition.

Critics say that, while President Obama stands at the front door touting renewable energy and job creation, his federal regulators are imposing a back door cap-and-trade system.

Whether they call it cap-and-trade or regulatory overreach, the result is the same: higher operating costs, higher energy costs for employers and families, fewer jobs, less investment and no economic growth.



Don Brunell is the president of the Association of Washington Business. For more about AWB, visit www.awb.org.