Alaska Dispatch by Alex DeMarban.  A Spanish oil major exploring Alaska's North Slope for the first time is reassessing its drilling plans this season.... El Paso takeover approved - Calgary Herald - Gas . Amid chanting and shouts of protest at a raucous shareholder meeting, El Paso Corp. investors approved the natural gas pipeline company's $23-billion takeover by rival Kinder Morgan Inc. The vast majority of the company's shareholders disregarded ... See all stories on this topic » Exxon CEO says U.S. has too many rules - Calgary Herald - State and local regulations in shale-oil-and natural-gas-rich plays across [...]

 Fairbanks News Miner Editorial.  the head of the American Petroleum Institute says oil production on federal lands, where the president has authority, has actually fallen. Jack Gerard, the group’s president, says production in the Gulf Mexico is down 30 percent, though that may be because of fallout from the BP spill, and lease sales in the Rocky Mountains are down 70 percent. He says, pointing to federal Energy Information Administration material for support, the president is only making 3 percent of the lands and waters under his control available for [...]

Senators Thomas and Paskvan propose gas line: Cook Inlet to Fairbanks - Alaska Dispatch - According to a legislative press release, Senators Joe Thomas and Joe Paskvan have introduced legislation that would instruct the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) to build a natural gas pipeline from Cook Inlet to Fairbanks, with enough capacity to serve unnamed other communities along the route.   Keystone pipeline would create Bay Area jobs - San Francisco Chronicle, Joe Epstein - The $7 billion project would not only make the United States more energy independent, [...]