Main points from White House energy advisor Heather Zichal in an update of the administration’s positions on energy and environmental policy at an event this week hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies:

• Safe, reliable, affordable energy is the lifeblood of America’s economy and is fundamentally linked to U.S. security in the world.
• America’s energy narrative has been rewritten – chiefly due to innovations that have launched the shale oil and natural gas revolution – from one of scarcity to one of abundance.
• The administration’s chief economic goal is to create more middle-class jobs, and energy is and can continue to be a key driver of job and economic growth.

There’s much to like there. The question is how to sustain and accelerate America’s new energ... more »

The White House is continuing the drum beat for higher taxes on oil and natural gas companies – oddly, as a reaction to higher gasoline prices. Press Secretary Jay Carney this week:

“Anybody fill up their gas tank this weekend?  Think the oil and gas companies can maybe afford to give up their taxpayer – special interest break?  I think most Americans would say yes.”

Let’s think this through. Gasoline prices have been rising – mostly because of underlying increases in the cost of crude oil due to higher global demand for oil – and the White House press secretary’s response is to connect gasoline prices with a tired proposal to raise taxes on the producers of gasoline.

Now, you don’t have to be a Harvard professor to recognize that raising taxes on the companies that find and de... more »

Energy From Shale has a new television ad that looks at Searcy, Ark., and the important and robust discussions that occur between residents and energy developers in energy-producing communities. Dialogue is an important part of the energy-developing process: Today’s oil and natural gas companies are investing time and energy to listening and responding to community voices. Check it out:

For more ad video and photo galleries, visit Energy From Shale.org.

New analysis by the consulting firm ICF International indicates significant potential economic benefits from the export of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG):

• An average across the studied cases of 213,000 new jobs supported by LNG exports from 2015 to 2035.
• An average across the studied cases of 24,000 new jobs in the manufacturing sector over the same period.
• More than $720 billion in cumulative economic growth over the same period.
• An additional 291,000 barrels per day in natural gas liquids – the critical feedstock for chemicals and other industrial sectors – by 2035.

Each point is salient in the ongoing discussion of U.S. policy governing LNG exports. The Energy Department currently is considering more than a dozen applications for licenses to build exporting facil... more »

Gasoline prices have been climbing. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports:

The average U.S. retail price for regular motor gasoline has risen 45 cents per gallon since the start of the year, reaching $3.75 per gallon on February 18. Between January 1 and February 19, the price of Brent crude, the waterborne light sweet crude grade that drives the wholesale price of gasoline sold in most U.S. regions, rose about $6 per barrel, or about 15 cents per gallon.

By far the largest factor in gasoline pricing is the cost of crude oil – and the cost of crude has been rising since mid-December, as this chart shows:

There’s lots of detail from EIA here on the factors affecting global crude markets – chiefly increases in global demand as economies pick up steam after t... more »