The Obama administration have imposed tighter restrictions on oil and gas fracking operations on public lands in an attempt to lower the risk of water contamination that has been chiefly behind the recent boom in U.S. energy production.”The regulations represent the administration’s most significant effort to tighten standards for hydraulic fracturing, a technique that helped… Keep reading →
On Wednesday, January 28, as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced the next step in the development of our nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022. The Draft Proposed Program (DPP) includes 14 potential lease sales in eight planning areas – 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico, three off the coast of Alaska, and one in a portion of the Mid- and South Atlantic, which includes areas off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
On Thursday, December 4, 2014, in Texas Oil and Gas Assoc. v. City of Denton, Cause No. 14-08933-431, 431st District Court, Denton County, Texas, the Denton Drilling Awareness Group and Earthworks filed a Joint Petition in Intervention seeking to “provide a vigorous defense of the legality and enforceability” of the December 2, 2014, ordinance (the “Ordinance”) which banned hydraulic fracturing in Denton. The suit was originally filed on November 5, 2014, by the Texas Oil & Gas Association, a day after Denton voters passed the Ordinance by a 59-41 percent margin.
America’s oil and natural gas industry supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. Industry’s extensive network of 30,000 vendors, suppliers, and contractors create and support jobs and grow the economy in every state in the union and almost every congressional district. What this speaks to is the unprecedented opportunity created by America’s 21st century energy… Keep reading →
Following the Texas Railroad Commission’s recent proposal for additional rules related to disposal wells in “high-risk” seismic areas, on Monday, August 25, members of the Texas House Subcommittee on Seismic Activity heard testimony from Dr. Craig Pearson, the seismologist hired by the Railroad Commission to investigate the possible correlation between seismic events and oil and gas activity. Pearson’s hiring followed a… Keep reading →
President Barack Obama came into Tuesday’s State of the Union address with some pretty compelling environmental credentials. On his watch, the U.S. has led the world in cutting carbon emissions, the use of renewables has dramatically expanded, and the Obama White House has consistently pushed to raise taxes and increase regulation on the oil and… Keep reading →
A group of fracking protesters in England were arrested Monday when they reportedly glued and chained themselves to gasoline pumps at a retail station they thought was owned by French oil major Total. The group was protesting against the oil company’s regional gas develop operations, but embarrassingly Total no longer owns the station. The service… Keep reading →
Mexico’s legislature recently passed historic energy reforms designed to attract desperately-needed foreign direct investment to the inefficient nationalized energy sector for the first time since 1938. This was when then-President Lázaro Cárdenas seized fields from U.S. and British companies and made oil at all stages of production, refining and distribution constitutionally guaranteed legal property of… Keep reading →
The oil and gas industry often bemoans the inefficiencies, permitting delays and duplicated efforts it says result from overlapping regulations at local, state and federal levels. Energy companies are now getting some help addressing this issue from 10 US state governors – who preside over the lion’s share of US oil and gas production –… Keep reading →
