A truck with the natural gas industry, one of thousands that pass through the area daily, drives through the countryside to a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in Springville, Pennsylvania.
In the continuing debate over whether fracking for natural gas contaminates drinking water, a new health center in the midst of Pennsylvania’s drilling country may provide fresh clues. Keep reading →
API President & CEO, Jack Gerard
Most in the energy business know the American Petroleum Institute as a Washington DC-based oil and natural gas industry lobby, but some may be surprised to learn the organization’s first initiatives were the creation of an authoritative statistics program and an industry standardization drive. Keep reading →
The debate surrounding the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling as part of oil and natural gas development has certainly reached the national stage, but the American Petroleum Institute – the industry lobby – has not lost sight of stakeholders at the state level.
The group is holding a series of workshops in various cities throughout the country designed to educate interested parties about how API creates industry standards and guidance. When followed by drillers and contractors, those practices are intended to ensure safety and responsible environmental stewardship. Breaking Energy attended one of these workshops earlier this month in the New York the state capital of Albany. Keep reading →
Men with Cabot Oil and Gas work on a natural gas valve at a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in South Montrose, Pennsylvania.
The oil and gas industry is facing a traffic jam of federal regulators rushing to regulate hydraulic fracturing, and industry representatives says the Obama administration needs to do more to consolidate new rulemaking. Keep reading →
A trader at the New York Stock Exchange.
Getting investors into the shale revolution in the US energy sector has been a difficult task at a time when natural gas prices themselves are low and individual firms are shifting their focus. Keep reading →
The best way to get $6 natural gas is to have everyone plan on $3 gas.
That was a sentiment heard repeatedly last week, during the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the Department of Energy’s National Electricity Forum in Washington, DC earlier this month. Keep reading →
Pennsylvania lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would impose fees on natural gas companies drilling in the state’s Marcellus Shale formation and allow the revenue to be used by local communities to offset the impact of the state’s booming shale-gas industry.
If signed into law as expected by Governor Tom Corbett, the bill will end Pennsylvania’s status as the only US gas-producing state that does not impose any kind of levy on energy companies for natural gas drilling. Keep reading →
In his third state of the Union speech, President Obama kept energy as “pillar” of economic recovery and made natural gas the pivot point.
While endorsing an “all of the above” energy strategy, he added little new from the policies of the last three years, and no real surprises. Keep reading →
A new model of venture capital investing is emerging in the clean tech sector, moving away from subsidies and traditional investor exit strategies to a focus on intellectual property value and partnerships.
“It is the case that the venture model of entering and exiting in two to three years doesn’t work in [clean tech] and it never has,” Flagship Ventures CEO and Managing Partner Noubar Afeyan told Breaking Energy recently. “Investors were looking for a formulaic path to making money, but it is IP value and partnerships that both validates the underlying business and provides a liquidity proxy for a possible exit.” Keep reading →
The hydraulic fracturing technology that opened vast US natural gas shale resources could be snared in what one analyst calls “a regulatory race to the top.”
The industry is arguing that regulation of hydraulic fracturing should stay at the state level, where it is traditionally managed. Environmentalists disagree, saying the states’ record is spotty and tougher federal standards are needed. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the issues, and aims for proposed rules in 2014. Keep reading →
