President’s Panel Urges More Drilling ...

Proposals for regulatory and tax reforms, incentives to encourage education and innovation, and aid for energy development, particularly fossil-fuel extraction, are among the recommendations in a report released last week by the 27-member presidentially appointed Council on Jobs & Competitiveness. The report also includes support for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Many of the panel’s recommendations are not new and are unlikely to get very far in this highly partisan Congress. However, the council’s strong energy-related recommendations to encourage onshore and offshore oil, gas, and coal production, particularly on federal lands, may gain some traction. President Barack Obama endorsed much of the report, and in a White House statement the Administration said it had already met many of the recommendations.