Energy Today - April 6, 2011
Rayola Dougher
Posted April 6, 2011
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Energy Solutions Are All Around Us: In the fight to provide a national energy policy that secures America's future, we need to maximize development of our resources to win. Yet many in Washington remain intent on a policy that closes off vast sources of domestic energy while increasing costs for families and businesses that are already tightening their belts. By enforcing a regulatory blockade on domestic drilling for oil and gas, the Obama administration is imposing what amounts to an enormous tax on all Americans. But that higher sum of money we pay for gasoline, instead of staying at home, is sent to other countries in one of the greatest transfers of wealth in history. It amounts to playing roulette with our economic and national security, while sacrificing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Billings Gazette: Energy Powers Robust Wyoming Recovery: "After a short but severe recession, Wyoming's economy has turned around since the beginning of 2010, thanks to the robust rebound of the energy industries," the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division reported in an economic summary issued last week. The rapid growth of emerging markets around the globe -- particularly in Asia -- is boosting demand for energy, including coal exports and oil, according to the report. Climbing oil demand and prices could create incentives for companies exploring for oil in the Niobrara Shale, which lies under part of Wyoming, while natural gas demand could climb as the nation's economy recovers, the analysts said.
Investor's Business Daily: An Oil Market Of Our Very Own: Energy Policy: Gasoline prices are punitively high, and many blame the administration. But prices could be lower and approval ratings higher if the president got behind an important pipeline project. The Keystone XL pipeline, proposed six years ago, is a 36-inch feed linking Alberta's oil sands fields to the refineries of Texas' Gulf Coast. It would carry not only Canadian crude, also but oil from the energy-rich U.S. states. If allowed to proceed, it would eventually transport more than a million barrels of crude each day -- more, according to Heritage Foundation analyst David Kreutzer, than we now import from either Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, our two largest suppliers after Canada and Mexico. "Along with the pipeline and petroleum," says Kreutzer, "would come increased energy security and a boost to the U.S. economy."
Yahoo: VA Congressman Seeks Oil, Gas Drilling Off Coast: U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte introduced legislation Tuesday to reopen Virginia's offshore waters to oil and gas exploration, which was stopped in its tracks by the BP oil disaster nearly one year ago. The proposal by Goodlatte would require the Department of the Interior to move ahead with a Virginia lease sale no later than one year after its passage...The government believes the Virginia leasing area could produce 130 million barrels of oil and 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Environmentalists have said that will provide the U.S. with six days of oil and 18 days of natural gas, based on current consumption trends. But the industry has said the estimates are based on decades-old seismic studies and new testing will likely inflate that estimate. Goodlatte said soaring prices at the gas pump and rising electric bills are reason enough to reopen the Virginia coast to drilling... Goodlatte said offshore exploration has the potential to create more than 2,500 full-time jobs and a capital investment approaching $8 billion.
Additional Resources:
Go Erie: Marcellus Shale Provides Erie-Area Employment