When energy consultant Daniel Yergin calls unconventional natural gas a "game changer," people listen. And in today's Wall Street Journal op-ed, Yergin and his colleague Robert Ineson of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA) say that the ability to produce natural gas from shale could "transform the debate over generating electricity."

As Yergin and Ineson explain, the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have led to a dramatic rise in natural gas supplies in the United States. "At current levels of demand," they say, "the U.S. has about 90 years of proven and potential supply--a number that is bound to go up as more shale gas is found."

They also say that natural gas emits less carbon than other fuels, making it a very attractive power source in a carb... more »

"Remarkable" was the word used by Energy Information Administrator Richard Newell last week to describe the sharp rise in U.S. natural gas reserves. In a report issued by his agency last week, Newell noted that U.S. proven natural gas reserves rose 3 percent in 2008.

The report also showed that natural gas reserves in shale formations rose an astonishing 51 percent over 2007. "This year's report underscores for a second year the technological shift in domestic exploration and production from conventional reserves to unconventional shales," Newell said.

In the past few years, the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have unlocked the promise of natural gas in shale formations and have led to a natural gas boom in several regions of the country. The Barnett Shale in Te... more »

The ongoing debate over the Kerry-Boxer climate bill has tended to focus primarily on two issues: the bill's potential costs and its proposed environmental benefits. But there are at least two other critically important items that have not been addressed adequately by the bill's sponsors. Both were mentioned briefly at yesterday's hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

The first involves government-mandated diesel emission reductions that began about seven years ago. The goal was to reduce emissions from heavy trucks to near-zero levels for both nitrogen oxide and particulate matter (soot). The American Trucking Associations (ATA) supports the air quality gains, but it notes that the environmental improvements haven't come cheap.

At yesterday's hearing, B... more »

Today, AAA reported that yesterday's nationwide retail gasoline prices climbed to a nationwide $2.695 per gallon average, the highest average price this year. Despite this sharp gasoline price increase, which has been driven by strong crude oil prices, the federal government has done little to help increase the supply of domestic crude oil, the basic feedstock of gasoline.

It's been more than a year since Congress and former President Bush lifted the moratoria on leasing new parcels in federal waters off the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific, yet this administration has slow pedaled efforts to set up a framework to allow leasing on this acreage, even though the majority of Americans support greater development of our domestic resources. Instead, a troubling pattern of delay has emerged wh... more »

One of America's largest refiners told a Senate panel yesterday that climate legislation could force his company to shutter some U.S. refineries. Bill Kleese, president and CEO of Valero Energy Corp. (not a member of API) made his comments during the second day of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearings on the Kerry-Boxer bill which proposes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in 2020. The Kerry-Boxer bill would likely reduce U.S. refining jobs because refiners would be forced to pay billions of dollars for carbon credits.

Under the Kerry-Boxer climate bill as well as the House's Waxman-Markey bill, U.S. refineries would be held responsible for about 44 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions, including the carbon from every car, truck, train, plane and other p... more »