This Saturday activists from "across the continent" are scheduled to gather here in D.C. to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Except not really. You see, last week I followed a Twitter chat set up by the protest's organizers, and over the course of 900 or so tweets one thing was mostly absent: any discussion of the pipeline itself. Which is both heartening and discouraging.

The good news is protesters obviously haven't found any problems with the fact that environmental impact studies have shown the 1,700-mile Keystone XL will have no significant environmental impact. And they appear to have accepted the fact that the $7 billion pipeline linking Canada's oil sands region with U.S. refiners will provide a tremendous economic boost, creating hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

The disco... more »

The Environmental Protection Agency is at it again - trying to implement unrealistic regulations that will severely impact our economy and job growth.This time EPA has targeted U.S. ozone standards - also known as national ambient air quality standards, or NAAQS - two years before their scheduled review under the Clean Air Act. U.S. News World Report frames the debate:

At issue: The EPA's plan go[es] far beyond former President Bush's effort to tighten ozone standards way in advance of the planned review in 2013. It could push much of the nation into non-attainment status under the Clean Air Act, forcing major changes to improve air quality.

Just how much of the United States would be affected? The EPA's aggressive air quality proposal would likely push more than 85 percent of U.S. counti... more »

Finding the facts about hydraulic fracturing is a little like - well, striking oil or natural gas in a brand-new field. It takes some work. Especially amid what can seem like a blizzard of fracking misinformation. Some important facts:

• Water - Last month Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson told a congressional hearing she knew of no cases of water contamination from hydraulic fracturing, during which a high-pressure solution is used to create tiny cracks in subterranean rock, freeing trapped oil and natural gas. The process occurs thousands of feet below groundwater levels.
• Chemicals - Get this: 99.51 percent of the solution used in fracking is water and sand. The chemical content in the fracking "cocktail," as opponents like to say, is less than a half of a percent... more »

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson telling a House committee there's no evidence hydraulic fracturing has affected water supplies isn't totally new news. Jackson has said similar things before. But in the context of the current public debate over "fracking," it's huge. Here's Associated Press energy reporter Dina Cappiello's Tweet from the hearing:

@dinacappiello EPA admin Lisa Jackson at House oversight hearing: "I'm not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water."

Think about it: Of all the officials in the federal government, Jackson would have heard if fracking - injecting a mixture that's 99.5 percent water and sand into subterranean rock to free trapped natural gas and oil - was tainting water. Anywhere.

Maybe the administrator's latest statement will... more »

Looking for information about hydraulic fracturing? The Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) launched their new joint website today to respond to concerns about the chemicals used in fracturing operations. It's called FracFocus and can be found here.

The website provides information on the makeup of fracturing fluid, the need for chemicals that make the fluid slick and kill corrosion-causing bacteria, and it lists the various names of the chemicals used to coax oil and natural gas from shale rock formations.Website visitors also can obtain a list of the chemicals that have been used at drill sites near their locations.

To clear up misconceptions, the website explains laws that pertain to oil and natural gas field chemical disclos... more »