The president's warning coming true

The game of drilling for oil and gas has gotten far more challenging in the last three years, and the regulatory onslaught has only just begun (bold emphasis added):

Regulation of the oil and gas industry by state and federal agencies has been extensive for many years, but regulation has reached a new high during the last three years.

The federal government has led the way recently with more than a dozen agencies exerting some control or influence on the oil and gas business.

The actions started by the federal agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, have filtered down to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission.

President Obama's team made it clear before the election that their opponents would have to pay a big price if Obama won re-election.

"After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget," Valerie Jarrett, assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, said Nov. 5, one day before the election.

President Obama has established an interagency working group of 13 federal agencies to coordinate and oversee the "safe and responsible development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources."

One is forced to wonder whether 13 federal agencies have ever cooperated to accomplish anything. OK, possibly winning World War II, but since then? And what are the odds given that the president's own assistant for "public engagement" is out for "payback" rather than actual trying to help American businesses develop American natural resources?