After weeks of apprehension, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed itself and will step in to supply drinking water to residents of Dimock, PA, a de facto acknowledgment that fracking led to contamination of the water supply in this town along the Delaware River Basin.

Dimock, PA, home to dozens of fracking wells and featured in the movie Gasland, experienced massive contamination with their water supply. Cabot Oil & Gas, the main fracking company, provided free water to the residents, under an order from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. But with a new governor, PA DEP let Cabot stop the water shipments. At first, the federal EPA said it would provide water, but then the EPA canceled the delivery. What now?

The EPA has been under assault from the GOP for the past year, and this has led to some uncomfortable rollbacks and compromises. The Administration’s cancellation of new ozone standards was particularly galling. But today, the EPA came through with new rules on mercury and air toxics that will deliver massive public health benefits, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

House Republicans left behind eight “conferees” for a conference on the payroll tax/UI/doc fix bill, and plan to hold showy events where they sit in a room alone, but Democrats have adamantly refused to reopen negotiations until the short-term bill passes. Meanwhile, half of the conferees opposed the payroll tax cut extension as recently as a few weeks ago. So far, nobody’s buying the GOP spin.

The House released their version of a year-end bill to extend unemployment benefits, a payroll tax cut and a “doc fix” to avoid a 27% cut in Medicare reimbursement. A look at the various elements of the bill make clear that Republicans have little interest in passing anything through Congress.

For the first time, government scientists concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the process of shooting massive quantities of water and chemicals into rock to release natural gas, contaminates drinking water. The study concerns an incident in Pavillion, Wyoming, and culminates three years of research of the local aquifer.

There is no such thing as rogue agencies or significant agency policy changes that don’t have Obama’s direct or implicit approval. The executive branch works for the President. The buck stop with him. Whether you approve or disapprove of the decision federal agencies make, the ultimate blame or credit rest squarely with the President.

Maybe Warren Buffett’s purchase of a California solar farm will finally force a recognition of the potential of solar energy from an economic standpoint. Since the dissolution of Solyndra, oil-besotted conservative lawmakers have dismissed this potential, saying that the industry was simply unprofitable. When Buffett makes an investment, that becomes a harder sell.

As a condition for extending the payroll tax cuts, the House will likely try to jam the Senate by passing some conservative piece of legislation with a bare majority and then leaving town, leaving a bill that includes means testing Medicare, reversing the EPA boiler rule, shifting authority for Keystone XL and cutting Affordable Care Act funds.

The upshot of this is that regulatory policymaking has become centralized in the White House. Obama has appointed some decent regulators at the various agencies, but all of their work gets funneled through Cass Sunstein. The regulators are just trying to make do with too-small budgets to fulfill their responsibilities. They also have to constantly look over their shoulders to see how Cass Sunstein is kneecapping their recommendations. And the real-world effects of all this are huge.