The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that permitting in the Gulf of Mexico in the year since the administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium ended is slightly lower than it was in the year before the 2010 Macondo accident:

“Feb. 28, 2011, was the date that the Interior Department approved the first permit for an oil company to drill a new well in more than 500 feet of water after it had implemented new safety rules. In the year since then, there have been 61 permits to drill new wells in more than 500 feet of water issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and its successor agency, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. In the same one-year period from Feb. 28, 2009, to Feb. 27, 2010, the government issued 67 such permits.”

The... more »

For the state of Arizona, the oil and natural gas industry currently means:

• Nearly 86,000 total jobs provided or supported statewide – with an average salary of $54,052 for non-gas station oil and natural gas employees.
• $4 billion contributed to labor income.
• $7.6 billion contributed to the state’s economy.

With sensible energy development and sound tax policies, here’s what the oil and natural gas industry could mean to Arizona:

• 682 additional jobs created by 2015.
• 1,443 additional jobs by 2020.

Energy works in Arizona, with the men and women of the oil and natural gas industry playing a critical role in that state’s economy. See more, here.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer is worried about the impact of the potential loss of Iranian oil on the global crude market. Reuters reports:

The United States should do more to encourage Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production to make up for lost Iranian oil, Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday, urging renewed diplomacy as a way to ease the run-up in oil prices. … A public promise from Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, to pump oil at its full capacity would calm oil markets as well as gasoline prices, Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Without saying so directly, Schumer’s point is that, yeah, supply matters. Global markets respond positively and negatively to ups and downs in supply – hence Schumer’s... more »

The New York Times’ Joe Nocera has a column based on an interview with Fred Krupp, a key member of the Energy Department’s special subcommittee on hydraulic fracturing – key because Krupp’s also president of the Environmental Defense Fund. Nocera writes:

"Unlike others in the environmental movement, [Krupp] and his colleagues at the Environmental Defense Fund don’t want to shut down fracking; rather, their goal is to work with the states where most of the shale gas lies and help devise smart regulations that would make fracking environmentally safer."

Nocera discusses the need to improve the capture of leaked methane from fracked natural gas wells, which certainly is an industry priority. Nocera then asks Krupp whether the federal government should take the regulatory lead, presu... more »

For the state of Michigan, the oil and natural gas industry currently means:

• More than 162,000 jobs statewide – with an average salary of $62,408 for non-gas station oil and natural gas employees.
• $8.3 billion contributed to labor income.
• $16.8 billion contributed to the state’s economy.

With sensible energy development and sound tax policies, here’s what the oil and natural gas industry could mean to Michigan:

• Nearly 2,500 additional jobs created by 2015.
• More than 4,400 additional jobs by 2020.

Energy works in Michigan, with the men and women of the oil and natural gas industry playing a critical role in that state’s economy. See more, here.