Opponents of a free market for natural gas have been trumpeting a new study which purports to show that LNG exports would be an economic negative for the United States. This flies in the face of analysis done by the Department of Energy, The Brookings Institute, ICF International and others which showed that to boost economic activity open markets are the way to go. So we took a look at the study to figure out why their conclusions are not consistent with other industry or government projections. We found some serious biases and inconsistent assumptions added up to a fatally flawed report. Here are a few specifics.

The employment impact analysis is flawed because it assumes no incremental natural gas production.

For some reason the report assumed no natural gas supply response and th... more »

Big news in a just-released study conducted for the U.S. Energy Department, which finds that allowing U.S. liquid natural gas exports would help the economy – and increasingly so as LNG exports grow. NERA Economic Consulting analyzed 16 different export scenarios, incorporating different assumptions about U.S. natural gas supply and demand and different export levels:

"Across all these scenarios, the U.S. was projected to gain net economic benefits from allowing LNG exports. Moreover, for every one of the market scenarios examined, net economic benefits increased as the level of LNG exports increased. In particular, scenarios with unlimited exports always had higher net economic benefits than corresponding cases with limited exports."

Other key details:

• Economic benefits con... more »

The presidential commission examining the Deepwater Horizon accident has determined that several missteps contributed last April's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, including poor decision-making by the companies' management and government regulators. According to an excerpt from its report, the commission found the tragedy "was not the product of a series of abberational decisions made by a rogue industry...the root causes are systemic" and should be corrected.

Among the failures highlighted in the document are gaps in communications between the rig workers on the Deepwater Horizon and within their companies, a lack of effective oversight by government regulators, and the failure of managers to understand the consequences of their decisions.

The commission identified nine decisions that incr... more »

In comments filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), API today revealed that a Department of Energy (DOE)-funded study shows the vast majority of existing gasoline pumps will fail if used to dispense E15.

E15 is a fuel blend consisting of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol. EPA has approved E15 for use in 2007 and newer model vehicles.

The study, which was conducted by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), shows that 40 percent of new dispensing equipment designed for use with E10 (today's gasoline) failed tests, and 70 percent of previously used E10 equipment failed tests.

There also is a strong similarity between the materials used in aboveground equipment and underground storage tank systems, leading API to conclu... more »

API has announced that it supports the voluntary chemical disclosure registry being developed by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) with the endorsement of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC). The registry is a step toward providing information about the chemicals in hydraulic fracturing fluids while protecting drilling companies' intellectual property.

API President and CEO Jack Gerard pledged that API will work with the GWPC to enhance the registry program's overall effectiveness. He added, "But it is critical that we ensure confidential business information is protected."

The voluntary, state-based electronic registry will have two phases. The first phase will allow companies to report data on a well-by-well basis, disclosing information about hydraulic fractur... more »