Yesterday, API hosted bloggers for a conference call focusing on the status of upcoming energy legislation and API's current legislative priorities. API President and CEO Jack Gerard took questions from the bloggers, along with API experts John Felmy, Doug Morris and Kyle Isakower. Topics discussed included the Waxman-Markey bill and access to domestic reserves of oil and natural gas.

The bloggers on the call included:

• Byron King, Whiskey and Gunpowder
• Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum
• Geoff Styles, Energy Outlook
• Lew Waters, Right in a Left World
• Nan Swift, FreedomTalks
• Robert Rapier, R-Squared

Listen to the audio of the call using the player and follow along with the transcript below.

September 17 Blogger Call: Waxman-Markey Bill

The Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars released a study today examining federal subsidies (direct subsidies, tax preferences and loan guarantees) to traditional fossil fuels and renewables.

In response, however, I would like to point out that assertions that oil and natural gas companies receive subsidies through programs like the Highway Trust Fund, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are ludicrous. This study is an irresponsible rendition based on a contorted recycling of government data that should never be used to craft national policy - especially a tax increase on the oil and natural gas industry that would raise energy costs and kill jobs.

Do the authors mean to suggest that LIHEAP, which... more »

Did you know that the top economist at the U.S. Treasury believes the United States is producing too much oil and natural gas?

As Alan Krueger recently told a Senate panel, the United States has an "overproduction of oil and natural gas" because U.S. tax policies encourage "an over investment in domestic resources in this industry." Krueger said taxes should be raised on the oil and natural gas industry to make it more "efficient" and to meet the administration's goal of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.

It doesn't take a government economist to understand the impact of Krueger's words. Common sense indicates that by raising taxes, the government would raise the cost of doing business. And as costs rise, companies have less capital to grow their businesses and hire more workers.

No... more »

The Committee on Natural Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing today on a proposal called the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009. While it's often referred to as an energy bill, it's actually an Un-Energy bill.

If passed, this bill would consolidate the leasing functions of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) into a single office at the Interior Department. At present, the MMS manages the leasing of offshore land for energy development, and the BLM manages a similar process for onshore leasing.

Combining the two agencies would not present a problem if it would improve the efficiency of oil and natural gas development. But this bill would add another layer of bureaucracy and could jeopardize the devel... more »

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday proclaimed that the recession appears to be ending. He based his comments in part on new data showing that consumer spending in August hit its highest level in three years.

According to the Commerce Department, consumers increased their spending by 2.7 percent last month. Although a portion of this rise was attributed to the Cash for Clunkers program, spending still rose a respectable 0.7 percent after stripping out expenditures for cars and gasoline.

API's Monthly Statistical Report on overall petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) contains some similar hopeful news. Although petroleum deliveries last month continued to decline, they slowed at the lowest rate in a year and a half. And while fuel and heating oil demand fell lower, August... more »