In its blueprint for American-made energy – a plan based on safe and responsible oil and natural gas development – API calls for common-sense energy regulation. What a sharp contrast with the regulatory landscape fostered by the administration, which simply has not made good on promises to promote regulatory predictability and reduce uncertainty. Upstream Group Director Erik Milito and Howard Feldman, director of regulatory and scientific affairs, made the case in a conference call with reporters.

Milito listed ways administration policies, as well as regulations it is considering, have hindered energy development and job creation:

• A status quo five-year plan for offshore oil and natural gas drilling that leaves 85 percent of our offshore acreage off limits to exploration and deve... more »

Ridiculing a New York Times editorial blog is like shooting unusually large fish in a barrel, but this one from last Friday is so fantastical and extreme that a commitment to an honest debate on energy compels me to fire away.  And we don’t have to go far to start the fact check, as they lead with:

"The simple truth, as President Obama has recognized, is that a country that holds less than 3 percent of the world’s reserves but consumes more than 20 percent of the world’s supply cannot drill its way to energy independence."

You would think that by 2012 the New York Times would know better than to take political rhetoric as fact, as the Washington Post notes in giving the president Two Pinocchios for the above claim “A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing... more »

In terms of energy development – we are a nation bound up in red tape. The graphic below hardly exaggerates the current state of play:  By federal policy and regulation we’re self-limiting the dynamic potential of America’s domestic energy wealth.

API President and CEO Jack Gerard:

“We hear talk about an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy, but in practical terms of removing the obstacles that are standing in the way of American made energy, this strategy has translated into ‘none of the below.’  We need action today to make sure we have the energy we will need tomorrow.  There are dozens of measures, large and small, that Washington could and should pursue.”

Here’s what he’s talking about – 10 opportunities for economic growth and job creation through an energy strategy that... more »

American-made energy. With the Energy Information Administration projecting that the United States will need more than 16 percent additional energy by 2035, the idea that we could, before then, see 100 percent of our liquid fuel needs met domestically and from Canada is huge. Make that gigantic.

Increased access to American energy resources is the key. API’s recent report to the two political parties’ platform committees marks the way – offshore:

• Open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas exploration and development
• Open the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf
• Open the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf

And onshore:

• Open the 1002 Area within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
• Open portions of the Rocky Mountains
• Lift New York state’s drilli... more »

With a nod to H.L. Mencken, who made art out of presidential punditry nearly a century ago, the current president’s election-year energy campaign is rife with “balder and dash.” Consider two recent administration pronouncements – to allow offshore seismic testing and to expedite permitting for drilling on federal lands – each of which amount to quite a bit less than meets the eye.

Let’s look at the second one first. In North Dakota to see an energy boom in progress, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged a new effort to speed up federal onshore permitting:

“…Salazar touted new automated tracking systems for managing lease sales and monitoring applications to drill wells on public lands that could pare processing time down to 60 days from nearly 300 now.”

Certainly, reducing the... more »