The Obama administration announced Monday it plans to tighten regulations for offshore oil rigs, saying the new measures will help prevent oil-well blowouts and minimize environmental damage.”The proposals announced by the Interior Department would substantially overhaul the technical guidelines for drilling on the U.S. continental shelf, adding dozens of new requirements aimed mostly at stopping high-pressure undersea wells from blowing their tops.” [The Washington Post]

Germany may be on the brink of an energy crisis, according to German Mittelstand News. “Some 39 power plants across the country “could be decommissioned later this year” which could “jeopardize the security of supply,” precipitating a huge energy crisis in the coming years as more plants are shuttered, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries — the country’s main utilities lobby.

“Every second power plant planned in Germany is about to fold,” Mittelstand News reports. “The willingness to invest is decreasing rapidly as even the most efficient gas-fired power plants can no longer be operated profitably.” [The Daily Caller]

Sandpiper, a proposed cross-border pipeline that will run through the Bakken has been met with staunch opposition from environmentalists and concerned citizens. “Its developer is Enbridge Corp., another Calgary, Alberta-based conglomerate whose extensive oil and gas pipeline network plunges deep into the U.S. interior.

The $2.6 billion Sandpiper project, which would move 225,000 barrels of crude per day roughly 610 miles from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to an Enbridge hub in Superior, Wis., has been approved by North Dakota regulators. But it remains under administrative review in Minnesota, where developers are seeking a certificate of need to ship the oil and a route permit to build the pipeline across 300 miles of the state’s Lakes Belt.” [Midwest Energy News]