A Pattern of Warring Against the States On Every Issue

The administration's bloody-minded crusade against the Gulf Coast economy has attracted a second suit by an industry player. Hornbeck Services launched and won the first legal assault, twice. Now ENSCO International is firing up a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior. How bad does it have to get for companies to sue the government and burn bridges with their regulatory agencies? Pretty bad. Fighting for their lives bad. The oil exploration services industry is fighting for its life because Obama's Interior Department's goal is to bankrupt the oil exploration industry. The BP spill has only enabled them to do on a grand scale what they have been doing since they took office - shutting down the exploration of oil and gas. Shut it off, drain the talent pool, drive away capital - ruin the industry. That is their goal, so the likes of ENSCO and Hornbeck have to step up and fight or they will whither and die. The courts are this industry's only hope and even then there is no guarantee the administration would comply with an adverse ruling. Watch this space, this is going to get alot worse before it gets better. I see this as another area, in addition to healthcare, where we could have another constitutional crisis. States will want to protect the important energy exploration industry and its high-paying jobs and one or more is likely to join in on the suits of the federal government.

Immigration, Healthcare, and potentially Energy - the Obama administration has managed to embroil the federal government in an all out war against states on each issue. A certain amount of co-existence and deference between the states and the feds is necessary for the survival of a federal republic. If this pattern holds and grows, we are on dangerous ground.