U.S. oil and natural gas drilling rose slightly in the third quarter of 2009, but it still was quite sluggish. "API's Quarterly Well Completion Report: Third Quarter" showed that total well completions rose 10.2 percent from the second quarter of this year, but the total number of wells and dry holes was down 46 percent from 2008's third quarter.

Hazem Arafa, API's director of statistics, said the trend is a "clear indication that oil and gas companies, which are facing declining earnings and threats of increased taxes, continued to carefully monitor their expenditures" in the third quarter.

Yesterday on this blog, I outlined some of the new taxes that have been proposed by the administration, but there are other items that also threaten drilling plans of U.S. energy companies. Among them... more »

An op-ed in last week's Osceola News Gazette by Florida state representative Mike Horner discussed the importance of domestic oil and natural gas production, and how production could bring additional revenues, thousands of well-paying jobs, and greater energy security to Florida and our nation.

Horner says:

"Economists project these energy resources could produce between $2.3 billion and $12 billion in revenues -- each year -- for state government. That's money we badly need for public education, transportation, environmental protection and other critical functions of government. Drilling also could boost Florida's economy by $7 billion to $41 billion a year and create 40,000 to 231,000 new Florida jobs."

Read the full op-ed for more information, and visit the Action Center to tell Congr... more »

Did you know that President Obama's 2010 budget proposal calls for more than $80 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry? If the budget is approved by Congress, these new energy taxes could have a negative impact on virtually everyone in the United States.

Taxes raise the cost of doing business, discourage investment in future energy supplies, threaten jobs and likely lead to higher costs for consumers. And despite claims of the industry's critics, the oil and natural gas industry does not receive "subsidies." Efforts to label certain tax provisions as subsidies misrepresent the established policy of the U.S. tax system. And the Treasury Department's assertion that the government's tax policy encourages the overproduction of oil and natural gas is ludicrous.

Here's a thumb... more »

Although it appears that the Senate climate bill won't come to the floor for a few weeks, work continues on climate legislation in Washington. According to an AP news report, the White House has stepped up its lobbying efforts to push for a bill, and administration officials have met with more than half of the senators as well as mayors and governors to drum up support. The report also quotes Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change, as saying the goal "is to get the bill moving and keep it moving."

One of the primary sponsors of the senate's bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, says she won't hold mark up on the Kerry-Boxer climate bill until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completes its study on the bill's potential impact. As reported in Greenw... more »

Today Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a decision to make eight of the 77 federal oil and natural gas parcels in Utah permanently ineligible for lease--and defer development on another 52 parcels.

This announcement is yet another in a series of actions this administration has taken to delay or thwart oil and natural gas exploration in areas where development has been designated, and where lease sales have been carefully planned.

This troubling trend means less revenue to federal, state and local governments at a time when our nation is running a record deficit. It also means fewer jobs at a time when we're headed toward 10 percent unemployment and less domestic energy for when our economy recovers and demand rebounds.

Development that takes place today translates to production in y... more »