Myths can be stubborn - sometimes more stubborn than the facts themselves. Tax treatment of the oil and natural gas industry is Exhibit A.

API Tax Policy Manager Stephen Comstock set the record straight after an Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner editorial failed to recognize that oil and natural gas companies are taxed at a higher effective rate than other companies, paying more than their fair share of taxes.

"You're way off base suggesting the nation's major oil and natural gas companies don't already pay their fair share of taxes. ... They pay millions of dollars a day in income taxes at higher effective rates than most other companies. They also receive none of the grants, guaranteed loans and price supports provided to other industries."

Similarly, API Upstream Director Erik Milito took... more »

The Orlando Tribune: Fracking Raises Hope for Onshore Oil Boom: Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses. Now the region is in the hottest new oil play in the country, with giant oil terminals and sprawling RV parks replacing fields of mesquite. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months. The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation's oil output by 25 percent within a decade... In the most developed shale field, the Bakken field in North Dakota, production has leaped to 400,000 barrels a... more »

What's up with U.S. gasoline prices? Or maybe we should say what's down?

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports the average price for regular gasoline has declined the past couple of weeks to $3.85 per gallon, down from $4 at the beginning of the month - a twist since the Memorial Day weekend historically marks the start of the summer driving season, higher fuel demand and rising prices.

The reason? Simple supply-and-demand economics, says API Chief Economist John Felmy, who briefed reporters on crude oil and gasoline price fluctuations this week.

Start with the price of crude oil, which accounts for 68 percent of the cost of gasoline. Crude prices reached $113 a barrel, reflecting demand from recovering global economies. Gasoline prices rose with them. "It's a function of the... more »

Paging through some of the positive ways the oil and natural gas industry is helping the economy as well as individual lives across the country:

A story in the San Antonio Express- News notes that just two years ago Dimmit County in South Texas was ranked as the 19th-poorest county in the United States. Today it's part of a drilling boom in the 400-mile-long Eagle Ford shale formation that's home to thousands of new oil wells and creating thousands of jobs. Last year Eagle Ford generated 6,800 full-time jobs and paid $311 million in salaries in benefits, according to a study. The same report showed another 12,600 spinoff jobs paying $512 million in salaries. By 2020 Eagle Ford is projected to support almost 68,000 full-time jobs, account for almost $21.5 billion in total economic output a... more »

Duluth News Tribune: State View: Gas Prices Effected by a Wide Range of Factors: There are certain misconceptions about petroleum and major American oil companies. First, the largest major oil company does not even rank in the top ten largest producers of petroleum when nationalized oil companies like the National Oil Company of Libya are considered. Second, local gasoline marketers determine the final retail price. Major oil companies like ExxonMobil do not own and operate stations in Wisconsin, but sell to local retailers at a wholesale or "rack" price. Third, the United States imports nine million barrels of crude oil per day and Canada, not Saudi Arabia, is our largest supplier. Fourth, demand for petroleum is increasing in the United States and will continue to do so through 2035 and... more »