This weekend's Consumer Energy Alliance Energy Links:

BuildKXLNow.org: Another Labor Day without Keystone XL
This coming Labor Day Weekend marks the fourth year Union construction workers will not be taking a day off from building the Keystone XL Pipeline to enjoy an end to the summer BBQ. Six years of delays are hurting, not helping, the thousands of people who will see benefits from pipeline construction. Independent and government reviews have exhaustively documented how construction would affect the U.S. economy, especially Union workers in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
 
The Energy Voice: Big Surprise for Labor Day Gas Prices
The summer season traditionally matches its intensifying outdoor temperatures with escalating gas prices, but not this year. Instead of breaking the bank at the pumps, motorists have been treated to unusually kind gas prices as the travel-heavy Labor Day holiday weekend nears. As of Aug. 25, the average price was $3.43 per gallon, the lowest average since Feb. 26, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Survey. In fact, gas prices have fallen 6.5% since the start of the summer, USA Today said.
 
Associated Press: Shell Files Revised Arctic Offshore Drilling Plan
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has filed a revised Arctic offshore drilling plan with federal regulators but says the company hasn't decided whether to return to waters off the coast of northwest Alaska in 2015.
 
The Hill: Landrieu ad highlights Gulf oil drilling fight
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) took credit in an advertisement released Thursday for ending the Obama administration’s Gulf of Mexico oil drilling moratorium that followed the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
 
Huffington Post: Obama Opened Floodgates for Offshore Fracking in Recent Gulf of Mexico Lease
In little-noticed news arising out of a recent Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas lease held by the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the floodgates have opened for Gulf offshore hydraulic fracturing ("fracking").
 
Leader Post: Inter Pipeline thrives outside Keystone spotlight
For Canadian oilsands pipeline companies, operating under the radar pays. Inter Pipeline Ltd. is leading shareholder gains among Canadian peers as it operates within the oilfriendly provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, avoiding the environmental controversies that have dogged projects from larger competitors such as TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL. Pembina Pipeline Corp., with a focus on Western Canada, hit a record high on Wednesday.
 
Rapid City Journal: Live coverage of Supreme Court hearing on Keystone XL appeal
NET Television will broadcast live the Nebraska Supreme Court’s hearing on the Thompson v. Heineman appeal over the Keystone XL pipeline’s Nebraska routes and Gov. Dave Heineman’s decision to sign legislation permitting the establishment of the route.
 
The Hill: Obama pushes green standards for everything but kitchen sink
The Obama administration is working on new efficiency standards for seemingly every appliance but the kitchen sink. Spurred by President Obama’s climate action plan, the Department of Energy is pumping out new standards for refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, furnaces, boilers, water heaters, lamps, and many more appliances.
 
The New York Times: A New American Oil Bonanza
Whenever overseas turmoil has pushed energy prices higher in the past, John and Beth Hughes have curbed their driving by eating at home more and shopping locally. But the current crises in Ukraine and Iraq did not stop them from making the two-hour drive to San Antonio to visit the Alamo, have a chicken fried steak lunch, and buy fish for their tank before driving home to Corpus Christi.
 
The New York Times: Resurgence in Oil and Gas Sector Spurs Merger Boom
The merger boom in the energy sector shows no signs of slowing. As energy production in the United States rises substantially, pipeline and storage companies will look to expand capacity through acquisitions, industry analysts and investors forecast.
 
Bloomberg: Sand Means Gold as U.S. Fracking Demand Booms: Chart of the Day
Shares of U.S. companies which supply sand to energy producers are surging in response to the growing use of fracking, or extracting oil and natural gas from shale formations.
 
Bloomberg: Alaska Lures Back Big Oil With Big Tax Breaks
Alaska’s oil boom times, which have propped up the state for decades, are coming to an end. In the late 1980s the state produced as much as a quarter of all U.S. crude, about 2 million barrels a day. Over the last 15 years, its daily oil production has been cut in half, to just more than 500,000 barrels. And the fracking boom has unlocked shale oil beneath Texas and North Dakota that is more profitable to extract. Rising oil prices have so far made up for Alaska’s declining production, but for a state whose budget relies on oil profits for 90 percent of its revenue, the picture is starting to look troublesome.
 
USA Today: Rail deliveries of U.S. oil continue to surge
Amid a boom in U.S. oil production, the amount of crude oil and refined petroleum products moved by rail continues to climb. There were 459,550 carloads of oil and petroleum products transported during the first seven months of this year, up 9% from the same period in 2013, according to the Association of American Railroads.
 
Associated Press: Oil industry treats fracking foes differently in Texas, Colorado
A fight over fracking is looming in Texas. Another stand-off is shaping up in Colorado. Yet drillers’ reactions couldn’t be more different. In Texas, drillers are doing their, noisy in-your-face fracking as usual. On a small farm about an hour from the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the oil industry is giving fracking a makeover, cutting back on rumbling trucks and tamping down on pollution.
 
Los Angeles Times: Fracking report clears way for California oil, gas leasing to resume
The federal government will resume oil and gas leasing in California following a report released Thursday that found little scientific evidence that fracking and similar extraction techniques are dangerous.
 
SFGate: Fracking may endanger groundwater in California
Fracking for oil in California happens at shallower depths than previously realized and could pose a risk to precious groundwater supplies, according to a federally commissioned report released Thursday.
 
Associated Press: Lafayette's fracking ban tossed
Colorado's oil and gas industry has again won another court battle against a town that banned or limited fracking. A Boulder District Court judge on Wednesday tossed out a voter-approved fracking ban in Lafayette.
 
Colorado Independent: Gas patch resident fracking concerns not going away any time soon
Coloradans living in the northern Front Range gas patch are moving forward with the movement to wrest greater control over drilling in their cities and towns, despite recent events.
The first week of August, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper pulled a rabbit out of a hat when he persuaded the main parties engaged in a heated, expensive battle over oil-and-gas drilling regulation to agree to an effective truce so that a task force could study the issue and then make recommendations to the legislature next year.
 
Associated Press: Illinois Department of Natural Resources set to release hydraulic fracturing rules Friday
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is expected to release proposed rules for high-volume oil and gas drilling to a legislative panel. Department officials say that rules to implement the state's year-old hydraulic fracturing law will be submitted to the Illinois Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules Friday.
 
Reno Gazette- Journal: State regulators allow fracking to start in Nevada
Fracking can move forward across Nevada after new regulations guiding the controversial activity were approved Thursday by state officials. Meeting in Elko, the Nevada Commission on Mineral Resources unanimously OK’d rules addressing the practice of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas.
 
The Times-Tribune: $90 billion left in Marcellus Shale, analyst says
About $90 billion of value remains in the Marcellus Shale, according to international energy, mining and metals analytical firm Wood Mackenzie. That estimate factors in the potential revenue from marketing the gas, minus development costs. The Houston-based firm expects the top 20 operators in the Marcellus to drill 25,000 wells through 2035.
 
Pittsburgh Business Times: Washington County's economy more than just Marcellus Shale
In terms of business opportunity, Washington County has more to offer than Marcellus Shale. That was the chief takeaway from the 45th installment of the Corridors of Opportunity series, a Pittsburgh Business Times event focusing on regions of the local economy.
 
Fuel Fix: Hearing to discuss Mexico’s energy impact on Texas
An energy boom is brewing across the border, and a joint legislative hearing in September will talk about the potential impact on the Rio Grande Valley. A joint hearing of the Texas House Energy Resources Committee and the House International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs Committee will be held Sept. 26 in Edinburg.
 
UPI: Texas reviews seismic link to fracking
A Texas energy regulator said it was reviewing industry practices for hydraulic fracturing brought into question after a series of seismic events in the state.
 
Express News: Flaring: the dark side of the oil boom
The flaring of natural gas in the Eagle Ford Shale makes for spectacular images. And it is slowly killing Texas and the world. The state clearly needs to begin offering more than the illusion of regulation. This is the biggest take-away from the exhaustively reported four-part series, “Up In Flames,” in the Express-News by Jennifer Hiller and John Tedesco. The series began last Sunday.
 
Renewablesbiz: Industry group say EPA plan would cut jobs, raise power prices
The Kentucky Association of Manufacturers and other business representatives on Wednesday said proposed revisions to federal air pollution regulations could cost Kentucky billions of dollars and put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. "Many in the nation and especially here in Kentucky believe they would have a damaging effect on our industrial base and our coal-fired power plant base," Kyndle CEO Brad Schneider, who facilitated a statewide news media conference call, said.
 
The Dispatch: Feds Look To Allay Seismic Air Gun Testing Fears
With the federal government inching closer to green-lighting the use of seismic air gun testing for natural gas and oil off the mid-Atlantic coast including Ocean City, the agency that would regulate the activity last week issued a statement attempting to clear up some of the myths associated with the potential dangers.