To the editor:

Donald Trump recently authorized the Energy Dominance Council and gave it broad authority over permits, production, generation, distribution, transportation and regulation of the oil and gas industry. That means his hand-picked, unelected council of cronies, who require no congressional approval or oversight, can tell you where to drill, how much to generate, where it will be transported to, how it will be transported, whether or not any regulations on your activity apply, and if and where you can sell you commodity

Not that the president has shown himself to be too petty with his exclusion of the AP from his announcements or his FEMA director’s denial of aid to hurricane damaged Georgia, but consider that he has had continuous battles with California and its environmental regulation and is at constant odds with the state government there. What would he do with his council to alter their lives? This president has already shown himself not to be above being a bully. This type of move is the very next step away from telling you how much you can charge for a gallon of gas and who can sell it to you.

Those GOP members who constantly complained about unelected bureaucrats making decisions without any approval or oversight and seem to tacitly approve of everything he is doing to date should take a good hard look in the mirror. Trump is merely taking one bureaucratic group with another. Can the representatives and senators from the state of Kansas or Missouri spell “dictatorship”?

Ken Meyer,

Lawrence