At an event last month, API President and CEO Jack Gerard sketched the broad outlines for a national conversation on energy, connecting energy policy with the approaching 2016 elections. It’s an appropriate linkage. Our country has become a global energy superpower thanks largely to private innovation and entrepreneurship, which have created a generational opportunity –… Keep reading →
Here’s the first of a series of posts sparked by speeches and presentations at this week’s U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) energy conference. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz set the tone for EIA’s event, noting that the U.S. faces a set of energy challenges, vulnerabilities and opportunities. At the heart of the discussion: America’s energy… Keep reading →
With EPA already embarrassingly late in setting requirements for ethanol in the fuel supply for 2014 (due 18 months ago) and 2015 (due six months ago), the agency finally has proposals for those years and 2016 that would continue to drive ethanol use – though not at levels dictated by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).… Keep reading →
Vice President Joe Biden underscored the administration’s call for infrastructure spending during a Bloomberg Government event that focused on the country’s deteriorating delivery and transportation systems. Some highlights: The Washington politics of infrastructure spending is challenging. “The idea that there is a debate on the Hill on the need to invest in infrastructure is mind… Keep reading →
Amid the continuing public discussion over improving the safety of crude oil delivered by rail, it’s important that everyone – the energy industry, railroads, regulators, policymakers – stay focused on the facts and the science. This is key to making meaningful improvements to freight rail transportation – which already delivers 99.998 percent of materials like… Keep reading →
The language of issue activism can have drawbacks. Sound bites charged with political activism seldom set the stage for useful policy discussions. The White House recently earned four “Pinocchios” from the Washington Post’s FactChecker for mirroring the anti-Keystone XL talk heard from those who want the U.S. to stop using oil. Similarly, in a climate… Keep reading →
By continuing to delay the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama continues to elevate politics over the pipeline’s merits and symbolism over acting in the U.S. national interest. Instead of giving the go-ahead to a project that would create good, middle-class jobs, boost the national economy and strengthen America’s energy security, the president talks about preserving… Keep reading →
In a State of the Union address that mostly skimmed over energy issues – remarkable, given the generational opportunities stemming from America’s ongoing energy revolution – President Obama still underscored the yawning disconnect between his all-of-the-above energy rhetoric and his administration’s failure to put that rhetoric into action. Talking about the need for infrastructure investment,… Keep reading →
The big news today was an announcement that President Obama will not sign Keystone XL oil pipeline legislation currently working its way through congress. Interestingly, the announcement was made at the same time major oil and gas industry trade group American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard delivered the annual State of American Energy address, in… Keep reading →
A new study details the way America’s unconventional energy revolution – oil and natural gas safely developed from shale and other tight-rock formations with advanced hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – is benefiting Americans where they live. The new analysis by IHS shows that electricity and natural gas cost savings from shale energy is, in… Keep reading →
