The debate over oil sands has taken a new political twist with a U.S. Senator asking whether the State Department will fairly consider a pipeline expansion project that could bring more Canadian crude oil to the United States.

In a speech in San Francisco last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "inclined" to approve the pipeline project after an environmental review is finished early in 2011. She described her role in considering the pipeline as "a very hard balancing act," and added, "Energy security requires that I look at all of the factors that we have to consider while we try to expedite as much as we can America's move toward clean, renewable energy." (AP)

Her remarks were criticized yesterday by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb... more »

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced a new multi-million dollar program to promote the production of and demand for biofuels. His announcement came on the heels of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of E15, a fuel blend containing up to 15 percent ethanol.

According to a news release, the program will create a base of new, non-food, non-feed biomass crops to meet future demand for renewable energy. "The Obama administration is aggressively supporting our nation's farmers, ranchers and producers of biofuels as they work to bring greater energy independence to America," Vilsack said.

A reporter who attended the Secretary's speech at the National Press Club says Vilsack also called on Congress to give the ethanol industry a short-term subsidy extension and annou... more »

American ingenuity played a huge role in the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile. While the whole world watched, the miners were pulled from the copper mine through a 28-inch hole drilled by two small U.S. companies.

The T-130 drill, developed by Schramm, Inc. of West Chester, Penn., was used create an opening through 2,200 feet of rock through which the miners could be pulled to the surface. It was delivered to the mine by GeoTech, an Atlanta-based company working in Chile, on a five-vehicle convoy as the miners' families waved flags. (The Wall Street Journal)

Schramm's CEO Ed Breiner called the drilling job "complex," but pledged, "I'm not going to relax until the job is done and the last guy is out." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

The drill bit used to bore the hole was designed and produced... more »

The federal judge who overturned the initial deepwater drilling moratorium has thrown out operational provisions issued in a notice to offshore operators after the Deepwater Horizon accident.

U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman yesterday determined that the Department of the Interior failed to give drilling operators and lessees proper notice when it imposed 10 new safety measures under Notice to Lessees-05 (NTL-05). "Notice and comment were required by law. The government did not comply and the NTL-05 is of no lawful force or effect," Feldman said. (Bloomberg)

Feldman's ruling was issued in the Ensco Offshore Co. v. Salazar lawsuit in which the drilling services company is challenging the administration's second moratorium and NTL-05. After the moratorium was lifted last week, the a... more »

Whenever the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues new regulations, it usually includes information about the impact on human health.

For example, the agency's new proposed ozone standard is supposed "to provide increased protection for children and other 'at risk' populations against an array of O3-related adverse health effects that range from decreased lung function and increased respiratory symptoms to serious indicators of respiratory morbidity including emergency department visits and hospital admissions for respiratory causes, and possibly cardiovascular-related morbidity as well as total nonaccidental and cardiopulmonary mortality."

But will the new ozone standard really do that? Not necessarily, according to a book called Air Quality in America: A Dose of Reality on Ai... more »