We've said energy shouldn't be a zero-sum game - that pursuing some energy resources shouldn't come at the expense of others. America needs all the energy it can develop. Most Americans seem to recognize this, and the notion that energy winners and losers are being picked probably is a factor in new polling that shows less than 14 percent think the country is on the right energy track.

That said, a new study by T2 and Associates shows the oil and natural gas industry is doing more than talking about an all-of-the-above energy strategy, having invested $71 billion in technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2010.

That's almost as much as the rest of private industry combined ($74 billion) and way more than the federal government ($43 billion) over the same period.

The administration is trumpeting a newly released plan it says could save $10 billion over five years by eliminating hundreds of regulations and streamlining the federal bureaucracy. Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs:

"Today, we are announcing that agencies are releasing their final regulatory reform plans, including hundreds of initiatives that will reduce costs, simplify the system, and eliminate redundancy and inconsistency. As the plans demonstrate, a great deal has been achieved in a short time. Significant burden-reducing rules have been finalized or publicly proposed from the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Transportation."

Writing in the Wall Street Journal [subscription requi... more »

Yesterday, our oil sands tour took us an hour south of Fort McMurray to ConocoPhillips' (COP) Surmont facility where we viewed the oil extraction process called steam assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD. The bitumen, or oil and sand mixture, is well below ground at this site. To give you an idea on how deep it's buried, you'd have to take an elevator 90 floors beneath the earth to get to it. The bitumen in its virgin state is very hard--like a chunk of honey. Our Canadian guides like to compare it to a hockey puck.

The SAGD process uses steam to soften the bitumen underground so that it can be extracted, processed and transported through a pipeline for further processing. Two parallel wells are drilled on each well pad: One for steam injection to heat the bitumen-rich sand, and another run... more »

Editor's Note: API praised the leadership of Chairman Upton and other members of Congress from both parties who voted to stop EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Marty Durbin, API executive vice president, called today's action an important step toward stopping the EPA's regulations and called on the president not to ignore this bipartisan vote:

"We welcome today's bipartisan vote to stop the EPA from overstepping its authority and to restore the Clean Air Act to its original purpose. We must continue to improve air quality, but we must also protect Americans from higher energy bills and from regulations that could cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

"We also welcome the support of a clear majority of senators, including 17 Democrats, who yesterday suppor... more »

Editor's Note: API President and CEO Jack Gerard applauded members of Congress who today voted to preserve American jobs by blocking EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. Gerard noted that while no single amendment won enough votes to pass in the Senate, "more than 60 Senators - an overwhelming majority - voted in one way or another to keep the EPA from moving forward." Gerard also called on President Obama to work with this bipartisan group to come to an agreement:

"Today is another step toward victory for American consumers who can't afford EPA's unnecessary regulations that could raise the cost of the energy and destroy jobs. Today's votes show that a growing bipartisan coalition recognizes that Congress, not unelected agency officials, should be setting the energy and economic poli... more »