Interesting points (and mesmerizing map) in Brad Plumer's post on why the employment/economic picture is better in some states than others, based on a Goldman Sachs analysis. Plumer lists the reasons:

1. Energy. "States that are linked to the oil and natural gas industry do particularly well in maintaining employment," Plumer writes, "among them Alaska, Texas, Wyoming and North Dakota (which boasts a 3.3 percent unemployment rate)." More on North Dakota, here.

2. States with limited exposure to the housing bubble.

3. States with lots of high-end service jobs.

Plumer's conclusion? "Yet another reason why housing policy seems to be the most fruitful place to look for ideas about how to pull the country out of its slump."

Housing policy? Of course (insert sarcasm here). Why opt for No. 1 when... more »

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says the natural gas industry needs to be out front on hydraulic fracturing regulations. With all due respect, that's already happening.

Fracking has been used to free oil and natural gas trapped in subterranean rock formations for six decades - safely. Recall that none other than Administrator Jackson told a congressional committee in May she knew of no instances of water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing.

That's because the industry members who're producing this important energy source are committed to best practices and guidelines, developed from field experience and in cooperation with API.

For example, in Texas, where the Barnett Shale and Eagle Ford plays are producing clean-burning natural gas - more than 4 billion cubic feet a day in the Ba... more »

Paging through some of the positive ways the oil and natural gas industry is helping the economy as well as individual lives across the country:

A story in the San Antonio Express- News notes that just two years ago Dimmit County in South Texas was ranked as the 19th-poorest county in the United States. Today it's part of a drilling boom in the 400-mile-long Eagle Ford shale formation that's home to thousands of new oil wells and creating thousands of jobs. Last year Eagle Ford generated 6,800 full-time jobs and paid $311 million in salaries in benefits, according to a study. The same report showed another 12,600 spinoff jobs paying $512 million in salaries. By 2020 Eagle Ford is projected to support almost 68,000 full-time jobs, account for almost $21.5 billion in total economic output a... more »

There's a revolution occurring in the United States, and it is spreading throughout the world. It is the shale gas revolution, and it has the potential to alter the global energy picture for many years to come. It began a few years ago when Texas oil man George Mitchell had a hunch that he could produce natural gas from the Barnett Shale formation in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Although some geologists were skeptical, Mitchell discovered that gas could be produced by using a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. When other energy companies learned of his success, they improved on his innovation and helped to create a new industry and thousands of jobs across the country.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, energy expert Daniel Yergin noted that shale gas accounte... more »

A major milestone was reached in the Permian Basin a few days ago. Chevron Corp. produced its 5 billionth barrel of oil from this U.S. formation. Overall, nearly 40 billion barrels of oil equivalent (oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids) have been produced by several companies in the basin since the 1920s, and it's still going strong.

The Permian Basin is a large depression in the Earth's crust stretching about 300 miles from western Texas to New Mexico. One out of every five barrels of domestic oil comes from the basin, which has been estimated to hold a total of about 100 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That's U.S. energy that can be used to produce products such as gasoline for American consumers.

Matt Insley of Daily Resource Hunter recently v... more »