2014 ndi 6ws-fitzmier, Lundberg, Abelkop Economy Disads Spending da
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- 2NC UQ—Nat Gas
- 2NC UQ—Oil Industry
- Soft Environment regulations now – oil companies have a free for all with recent blocked legislation
2NC UQ—HiringBusiness environment is improving—hiring patterns—but growth is uncertain—keeping a pro-business climate is keySchwartz 7/3 (NELSON D. SCHWARTZ , NY Times Journalist and former Senior Writer for Fortune, “Hiring Is Strong and Jobless Rate Declines to 6.1%”, NY Times, 7/3/14, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/business/jobs-data-for-june-released-by-labor-department.html?_r=0) American companies are finally getting comfortable enough with the economy’s prospects to add new workers at a very healthy pace, after years of saying they lacked the confidence to hire people aggressively during a fitful recovery.¶ Employers added 288,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said Thursday, the fifth month in a row that hiring has topped the 200,000 mark. The unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent last month, the best reading since September 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers turned what had been a mild recession into an economic rout.¶ Since then, many segments of the economy have rebounded — including corporate profits, Wall Street and the housing market — even as payrolls inched higher at a grindingly slow rate. Now, these broader economic gains are prompting businesses to actually hire significantly more workers in response to growing demand, rather than taking half steps, like adding hours to stretch existing work forces.¶ The prospect of stronger economic growth, with healthier consumer spending as more Americans find work, helped to lift the stock market to new highs. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 17,000 for the first time, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index recorded a new high and the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit its highest level since the go-go days of 2000.¶ Despite the broad gains, the economy is still a long way from its peak before the housing bubble burst and the recession began at the end of 2007. The broadest measure of unemployment, which includes people who are working part time because full-time positions are not available, stands at 12.1 percent. And the proportion of Americans in the labor force has been stuck for three straight months at 62.8 percent, a 36-year low, and is down sharply from 66 percent in 2008.¶ But the recent healthy level of hiring looks more sustainable than it has in years. Factoring in June’s increase and upward revisions for estimated hiring in April and May, employers added an average of 231,000 workers a month in the first half of 2014, the best six-month run since the spring of 2006. “We’re clicking on all cylinders in terms of job growth,” said Dean Maki, chief United States economist at Barclays. 2NC UQ—Nat GasThe status quo regulations and business climate in the US facilitates a thriving natural gas industry.Pickrell 13 (Emil, Editor/Reporter for the Accounting & Compliance Alert, January 22nd 2013, “Friendly business environment fuels U.S. oil boom, report says,” http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/01/22/u-s-infrastructure-capital-laws-give-it-an-edge-in-shale/ A favorable business climate in the United States has helped make the country the world leader in the shale revolution, a report said Monday. In the report, “Energy and the New Global Industrial Landscape: A Tectonic Shift?”, research firm IHS notes that shale gas and tight oil deposits are being discovered all over the world. However, the report adds that the U.S. has the ingredients to help the industry flourish, including private property ownership rights, good energy infrastructure and access to risk-based investment capital. “This is primarily a story of market forces and entrepreneurship, not government incentives or intervention,” IHS wrote in the report. IHS projected that growth in unconventional oil and gas will add more than 3 million jobs by 2020 and generate more than $110 billion in taxes. U.S. oil output has increased 25 percent since 2008 to about 6.4 million barrels per day. 2NC UQ—Oil IndustryU.S. offshore largely unregulated-offshore is still largely free game for corporationsMastrangelo 5 (Erin, Epa agent and correspondent, “Overview of U.S. Legislation and Regulations Affecting Offshore Natural Gas and Oil Activity “, EIA, http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/feature_articles/2005/offshore/offshore.pdf) Legislation and regulations regarding natural gas and oil exploration, development, and production from U.S. offshore lands developed over many decades in response to a variety of concerns and disputes that were most often engendered by competing priorities. This article discusses the evolution of offshore developments and the major legislation and regulations that have affected the natural gas and oil industry in the past 50 years. The most common early disputes revolved around ownership of coastal waters. Eventually, as offshore activities became more abundant, more complicated issues arose over the need to ensure that operations are accompanied by safety, equity, and the protection of marine and coastal environments. This article presents a summary of the legislative and regulatory regime that affects natural gas and oil exploration and production in offshore regions of the United States. It discusses the role and importance of these areas as well as the competing interests surrounding ownership, production, exploration and conservation. Questions or comments should be directed to Erin Mastrangelo at erin.mastrangelo@eia.doe.gov or (202) 586-6201. The Federal government did not largely regulate natural gas and oil exploration and development activities in the offshore regions of the United States from the 1880s, when offshore oil production first began, through the mid-1900s. During this time technological advances and increasing demand for natural gas and oil provided incentives for offshore exploration and the development of offshore natural gas and oil production infrastructure. By 1949 eleven offshore fields had been found and 49 production wells were operating in the Gulf of Mexico. By the 1950s the U.S. government began responding to increased concerns regarding offshore jurisdiction, environmental impacts of offshore activities, economic factors, and safety. Key legislative and regulatory initiatives were thereafter enacted that sought to balance the need for a reliable, safe energy supply with minimization of environmental impacts, at a fair price to all parties. Offshore natural gas and oil exploration, drilling, production, and transportation have all been affected. Legislative action has ranged from imposition of a wide range of requirements on operations in the offshore to complete removal of access to offshore resources. Today natural gas and oil drilling is prohibited in all offshore regions along the North Atlantic coast, most of the Pacific coast, parts of the Alaska coast, and most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The central and western portions of the Gulf of Mexico therefore account for almost all current domestic offshore natural gas and oil production. Soft Environment regulations now – oil companies have a free for all with recent blocked legislationMarkey 13 (Ed, Congressman, “ Markey Report: Americans Still at Risk from Dangerous Offshore Drilling Practices”, http://democrats.naturalresources.house.gov/press-release/markey-report-americans-still-risk-dangerous-offshore-drilling-practices, 5/10/2013) A new report, released today by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), shows that oil and gas companies drilling offshore in the Gulf of Mexico continue to suffer major safety lapses three years after the BP spill and that penalties are still insufficient to deter risky practices. The report, prepared by Rep. Markey's staff on the Natural Resources Committee, analyzes data from the Department of the Interior (DOI)—including company-by-company data, which has not been publicly disclosed before—to assess progress over the last three years, comparing accidents, inspections, safety violations and civil penalties before and after BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. “Oil and gas companies with the worst safety records in the Gulf before the BP disaster continue to spill oil, lose control of their wells and rack up safety violations today,” said Rep. Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. “We need to make sure these companies change their ways and pay a price for their risky practices. Unfortunately, House Republicans have blocked legislation to strengthen regulatory enforcement and raise penalties for offshore safety violations.” Rep. Markey also sent letters today to BP and the Environmental Protection Agency expressing displeasure that BP has refused to provide information and documents related to the company’s guilty plea of obstructing Congress. Rep. Markey asks EPA not to lift BP’s debarment from receiving federal contracts until the company has provided the requested documents. “First, BP lied to Congress when I asked for information about the amount of oil being spilled into the Gulf,” Rep. Markey said. “Now, BP won’t provide me information about why company officials lied. Until it comes clean and cleans up its act, the government should not be in business with BP.” The data in the report -- “Dangerous Drillers: Offshore Safety Lapses Continue Three Years After BP Spill” -- show some positives. The number of injuries from offshore accidents is down 50 percent over the last two years, as DOI has been more aggressive in handing out violations, and companies have less frequently lost control of their wells -- as happened in the BP spill -- since DOI adopted stronger regulations in 2010 following the catastrophic blowout at BP's Macondo well. However, the companies with the most safety violations before the BP spill are still racking up the most violations today, and a number of companies, including Chevron, Shell and Apache, have spilled oil into the Gulf or lost control of wells both just before and after the spill. Even BP has been cited for more major offshore safety violations in the last two years than before the spill. 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