The Wall Street Journal has an incisive editorial this week that compares the diverging trajectories of two big, energy-rich states: Texas and California.

Texas is flush with well-paying oil and natural gas jobs, supported by shale development spurred by advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. The Journal notes that more than 400,000 Texans work in the oil and natural gas industry – nearly 10 times as many as in California – and the state has doubled its oil output since 2005. California? It used to be mentioned in the same breath as oil giants Texas and Alaska, but oil production is down 21 percent since 2001 and it has slipped out of the top-three tier of oil-producing states. The editorial:

This is not because California is running out of oil. To the contrary,... more »

In an interview with Fuel Fix, Charlie Williams, director of the Center for Offshore Safety, fields a question about the perceptions surrounding the safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico:

“I think the biggest misconception is that not much has been done, when there has been a tremendous amount of effort by the industry and by regulators in moving this forward. … There has been more collaboration, cooperation and improvement in working together to make things better than I think we have ever done before.”

Steadily improving offshore safety in oil and natural gas development was the main reason for the center’s creation and Williams’ selection as director last year. The center gathers industry practices that foster safe and responsible operations, shares the inform... more »

Each of the State Department’s four reviews of the Keystone XL pipeline – during the more than four years the project has been under consideration – focused primarily on the Keystone XL’s impacts on the environment: air, ground and surface water, wetlands, vegetation, wildlife and more. State went beyond the Keystone XL itself, evaluating the environmental impact of oil sands crude that would be delivered through it – as well as the impacts on Canada.

Bottom line: Each review came to the same conclusion – the Keystone XL’s construction and operation will not significantly impact the environment. From the most recent State assessment, issued in March:

The analyses of potential impacts associated with construction and normal operation of the proposed Project suggest that there would... more »

The U.S. Geological Survey has new estimates for oil and natural gas in the Williston Basin shale area that simply blows the doors off previous estimates:

• 3.65 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil for the Bakken Formation.
• 3.73 billion barrels for the Three Forks Formation.
• The total, 7.38 billion barrels, is a two-fold increase over USGS’ 2008 estimate, which included only the Bakken Formation because Three Forks wasn’t thought to be productive.

The chart below shows how resource estimates have skyrocketed since 2008 and 1995, when the assessment totaled only in the millions of barrels:

The main reason for the dramatic increase is drilling innovation – advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling over just the past five years. USG... more »

Take a look at the map below, one we’ve used before to show the vastness of America’s offshore oil and natural gas reserves – the overwhelming majority of which (in red) that’s off-limits for development.

That should be changed – and could be changed with the right policies in Washington. Legislation introduced today in Congress to allow drilling off Virginia’s coast is a step in that right direction. The bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia would require the Interior Department to sell at least one offshore lease for oil and natural gas development there, mandating that a portion of any federal revenue be shared with the commonwealth.

Access to areas offshore and onshore is vital to the kind of expanded domestic oil and natural gas production needed to make the Un... more »