Yesterday, we launched our newest interactive--Smart House, a game that teaches players about energy efficiency and tests personal energy awareness.

During your time in the virtual Smart House, you can make decisions about the energy efficiency of items in your house and find helpful tips that translate into both energy and cost savings.

Oil and natural gas are vital in almost every aspect of your home, whether they're used in the heating or cooling the home or in the products we use every day. And with Smart House's useful advice, you can apply what you learn and turn your home into a Smart House.

So have some fun and pick up helpful energy-saving tips along the way.

For additional games and simulations to test your skills and knowledge of the energy industry, visit the Energy Arcade. Cr... more »

Repeat after me: We don't have to settle for just one or the other. We can have a healthy environment and energy development.

Yet, some conservation groups have expressed dismay over last Thursday's decision by the federal government to create critical habitat for polar bears in Alaska. The proposed habitat area covers 200,541 sq. miles including portions of the northern and northwestern coasts, coastal barrier islands as well as coastal spits, sea ice in waters less than about 1,000 feet deep, and denning areas as far as 20 miles inland. Apparently that wasn't enough for some groups who immediately warned that planned oil and natural gas development in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas could be harmful to bears.

It's believed that about 3,500 polar bears inhabit the Beaufort and Chukchi sea a... more »