Before we get much farther into the new year, let's look back on the old. 2014 was disappointing in several respects, but there were some bizarre - and occasionally bright - moments which deserve to be recognized. It's time to issue this column's latest set of "Watchies."
The 113th Congress was the worst in US history when it came to passing bills that actually became laws. The Republican-led House approved plenty of measures to make political points which the Democrat-controlled Senate refused to take up. Gridlock was the rule, with one prominent exception.
Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and John A. Barrasso (R-Wyo.), along with Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and others in the House, share a Pat-on-the-Back Watchy for making permanent a successful pilot program to improve drilling permit application processing in several US Bureau of Land Management field offices in the Rocky Mountains before the program expired.
This was a case where meeting a specific urgent need made so much sense that partisanship was cast aside to get the necessary work done. If it could only happen more frequently...
US President Barack Obama was criticized for many of his 2014 actions. This column contributes its two-bits with a Thick-Headed Watchy because of his dogged adherence to environmental organizations' myths about the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project long after they've been proven false.
The president has more pressing matters, however, and it's possible he hasn't taken enough time personally to examine all the facts. An issue this important requires more than considering a single set of possible consequences which matter most to a small, but strident, constituency. Obama takes a broader approach on other much bigger issues. It's past time he did the same here.
Cooperative efforts
You-Know-Who-You-Are Watchies go to everyone who worked below-the-radar during 2014 to reach effective workable solutions involving oil and gas. Two immediate examples are folks working together to improve the Greater Sage Grouse's habitat so it won't be listed as an endangered species, and everyone discussing ways to reduce methane emissions from the wellhead to the consumer without compromising operating safety.
2014 clearly was a year when unintended regulatory consequences became glaringly apparent. The US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security wins a Crack-in-the-Door Watchy for its June 24 ruling that Enterprise Product Partners LP and Pioneer Natural Resources Co.'s minimally processed condensate qualified as a product and could be exported.
This started serious conversations about what it actually will take to remove outmoded US crude oil export limits. The 114th Congress's energy leaders say they might even fully examine this. That would be refreshing.