2-6-14

[Barack] Obama will make the final decision, but your support is going to be the deciding factor,” CEA President David Holt (NGP Photo) wrote to supporters. “Let’s make it absolutely clear that the American people support building the Keystone XL pipeline.”

EnergyWire: HYDRAULIC FRACTURING: 'Voice of the energy consumer' fights local fracking bans In Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and other states, an energy consumer advocacy group is working to keep hydraulic fracturing on the books. "This isn't just about the oil and gas industry," Andrew Browning, policy adviser for the Consumer Energy Alliance, said of attempts to ban the shale fuel extraction process in places like Longmont, Colo., and Youngstown, Ohio. Consumers and businesses "want to know, how is this going to impact us?"

Bill Martinez Show: Bill Martinez Show – Update on Keystone XL Pipeline Part 1 and 2 

The Vienna Times: Could fracking in Johnson County be dream come true? Last month, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing our Environment (SAFE) submitted signatures to the Johnson County Clerk to place a hydraulic fracturing ban on the ballot thisMarch 18th.  These anti-development activist organizations initiated this effort since Johnson County is one of several Southern Illinois counties being considered for shale development.

Politico: House Republicans: 'Other fish to fry' besides Keystone

House Republicans said Thursday there’s no place for the Keystone XL oil pipeline in legislation to raise the debt limit. “The Keystone pipeline creates job, but it really is not a debt-ceiling type issue,” Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, a top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said during a discussion at POLITICO’s “Energy & the 113th Congress” event.

Washington Post: Where do former Obama officials stand on Keystone XL?  Former interior secretary Ken Salazar made waves Wednesday when he announced at the North American Prospect Expo in Houston that he supports approval of the Keystone XL pipeline because, he told the audience, “At the end of the day, we are going to be consuming that oil.”

Hot Air: Former Interior secretary: C’mon, Keystone XL is a “win-win”  While the White House is still — still — adamantly insisting that their eventual Keystone XL pipeline decision (whenever that may be) will be absotively, posilutely not-at-all political after their former Energy Secretary Steven Chu openly conceded that “the decision on whether the construction should happen was a political one and not a scientific one,” yet another of Obama’s former cabinet secretaries is apparently refusing to oblige what is clearly their highly politicized Keystone agenda with any rhetorical cover.

News & World Report: Is 2014 the 'Year of Action' for Keystone XL?  We’ve been down this road before.  The president has often proclaimed his "all of the above" energy advocacy, but with no movement on the Keystone XL pipeline approval he has frustrated people on both sides of the issue. He’s managed to alienate the large number of Americans for whom the pipeline is a no-brainer, and, the environmentalists too, who are aghast at the thought that this pipeline would even be considered.

Business Week: Keystone XL Pipeline Records Sought in Sierra Club Suit Keystone XL pipeline records are being sought by the Sierra Club in a lawsuit claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to make public documents related to its review of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s project. The Army Corps has wrongly withheld records describing the pipeline’s path in relation to communities and sensitive water resources, according to the environmental group’s complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco.

The Hill (blog): Landrieu eyed in anti-Keystone campaign  Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is launching a new campaign against proponents of Keystone XL, and one possible target is Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.). Steyer's green group NextGen Climate Action posted a list of candidates that are strong advocates of the controversial TransCanada oil pipeline on its website, asking people to pick which one it should target for its Keystone XL television ad.

Denver Post: Broad coalition backs Keystone XL oil pipeline  An unusual coalition of lawmakers from both parties, labor and business leaders, veterans groups and Canada's ambassador to the United States joined forces Tuesday to push for quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

E&E TV: Canadian Ambassador Doer confident on pipeline's approval  Will the final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline be based on politics or science? During today's OnPoint, Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the United States, reacts to the State Department's final environmental impact statement on the pipeline and explains why he believes the pipeline will ultimately be approved. He also talks about the politics that are at play as the Obama administration considers the project's future.

Bloomberg BNA: Senate Democrats to Ratchet Up Defense of Climate Change Actions

The Senate climate change caucus formed, in part, to defend President Obama's climate plan, and efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants will offer some insights into its strategy next week, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 4.

 

Reuters: UPDATE 3-Ethanol RINs break back above 50 cents; Philly refiner blames RFS

The price of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits extended gains on Wednesday, with refiner buying helping push ethanol RINs for the 2013 compliance year past the 50 cent mark for the first time since September, traders said. E13 RINs traded as high as 53 cents each, traders said, and were heard traded at 52.5 cents by mid-afternoon. The credits traded at a high of 46 cents the previous day, following several days of steadily rising markets.

 

USA Today: Report: Fracking raising water supply worries

The USA's domestic energy boom is increasing demands on water supplies already under pressure from drought and growing populations, a new report says. The water-intensive process used to extract oil and gas from shale underground — known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking — has required almost 100 billion gallons of water to drill more than 39,000 oil and shale gas wells in the U.S. since 2011, says Ceres, a green investment group.

 

Houston Chronicle: Fracking competes for water in dry regions

Hydraulic fracturing is competing for water in some of the driest regions of the U.S., including the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, according to research released Wednesday by the nonprofit Ceres.

 

Tribune Live: Pennsylvania quickly finds ways to spend shale gas revenues

State government is spending its Marcellus shale money almost as fast as it's coming in.

Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget would spend nearly $230 million in one year from leasing state-owned natural gas rights, leaving the state's Oil and Gas Fund with $14 million less than what it started with before Corbett passed his first budget in 2011. A lot of that money would go to education, health care and public safety, Corbett officials said.

 

Patriot-News: Gov. Corbett should ignore the lure of easy money and opt against further expansion of drilling in state forests: Editorial

Gov. Tom Corbett proposed a balanced, $29.4 billion budget on Tuesday that increases state spending on education and seniors without passing on a broad-based tax increase to Pennsylvanians. And that’s a good thing. What is more worrisome, however, is one of the ways it achieves its legally required balance.

 

Columbus Business First: Frack tax compromise with higher rate may be coming at Statehouse The long and winding road at the Statehouse for a proposed oil and gas severance tax may be coming to an end. Ohio Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, a sponsor of House Bill 375, plans to introduce a substitute bill in the House Ways and Means Committee calling for a higher tax rate, Gongwer News Service is reporting. Huffman told Gongwer the bill probably will include a higher rate and could shorten the time drillers pay a reduced rate from the first five years of production to two or three years.

 

E&E News: BARNETT SHALE: Texas regulators to finish latest Range investigation this month The Texas oil and gas agency investigating a second round of water contamination complaints around a gas drilling well west of Fort Worth expects to finish by the end of the month. There are now nine new complaints about contamination near a Barnett Shale well drilled years ago by Range Resources Corp., Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter said in a written statement for the record of a hearing yesterday. The most recent complaint was filed Jan. 27.

 

E&E News: REGULATION: So far, so good for stricter Texas drilling rules – commissioner Texas' new, more stringent drilling rules are receiving some push-back from oil and gas companies, but regulators are still seeing mostly the upside to the changes, one of the top industry regulators in the state said.