Cecilia "Ceci" Leonard describes herself as an "oil brat" from the oil patch. She is a second-generation petroleum worker who has come to Washington today to meet with members of Congress.

"We have an image problem," Ceci says about the oil and natural gas industry. "I want everyone--including Congress--to know that we are regular, responsible and educated people. We are active in our community. We are professional. We recycle. We want what's best for our kids. We are good citizens."

The Boxer-Kerry Kerry-Boxer climate change bill leaves unaddressed key elements of how it intends to constrain carbon emissions. Unfortunately, it appears to be following the pattern the House followed, which resulted in a political bidding process that picked winners and losers.

The losers would be millions of Americans and American companies who rely on gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products to get to work and to school and to run their businesses. As we've talked about on this blog, analysis shows that Waxman-Markey would kill more than two million American jobs, drive fuel prices up to between $4 and $5 a gallon and make our nation more dependent on imports of gasoline and other fuels.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are expected to release their version of a climate bill tomorrow. News reports say the bill is meant to be a starting point for the Senate's deliberations.

Although reports say it will be based on the Waxman-Markey bill that passed narrowly through the House, it will lack detail on many of the key issues. For example, it will not prescribe how carbon allowances are supposed to be distributed among various industries. And unlike the House bill, the Senate version will contain nuclear power and clean coal provisions.

Architect Joesph Linesch (1924-1996) had a vision for Long Beach, California--to become the Riviera of the West, a nearly fantasy-like harbor rivaling the buildings and landscapes he designed for Disneyland and Epcot Center. Between 1965 and 1968, he created structures and landscaping that make the oil production facilities here look like a high-end condominium complex.

Thursday was another gorgeous day in Long Beach, with blue skies and a pleasant breeze blowing along the harbor. At Lighthouse Point, children picnicked with their families while fishermen on a nearby pier caught croakers for supper. At the docks, you could hear seals barking at the Aquarium of the Pacific as tourists returned to shore on boats offering whale watching tours.

Long Beach has many attributes, among them a moderate climate, one of the busiest seaports in the United States and facilities that lure tourists to the area, including a massive convention center. But most residents here aren't aware of the hidden resources that have contributed so much to the City of Long Beach.

"A lot of residents don't know there is oil and natural gas development going on here," explained Curtis Henderson, the city's manager of oil operations.

No one likes to watch sausage being made, but most of us enjoy sausage. That seems to be the case with oil and natural gas, too. The vast majority of Americans enjoy the benefits afforded by these energy-rich fuels, but some Americans would prefer not to see how they are produced.

The City of Long Beach successfully addressed the "sausage-making issue" back in the 1960s when it passed a resolution allowing several oil companies to produce energy in its harbor. It said the companies could create man-made islands to drill for oil and natural gas in the coastal waters, but in return the companies had to disguise their activities. The companies agreed, and the THUMS Islands were born.

As President Obama prepares to meet with leaders of the G-20 nations tomorrow, he should be commended for noting that climate change is a challenge for both developed and developing nations.

But his call to "phase out fossil fuel subsidies" is the wrong approach that should be seen for what it really is: a giant tax hike on American consumers.

Three more studies have been issued about the Waxman-Markey climate bill, and each represents another red flag urging extreme caution.

Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) quietly released a new analysis of the bill's potential impact on the U.S. economy. The study shows that the Waxman-Markey bill could reduce the nation's Gross Domestic Product by up to 3.5 percent by 2050. As I've pointed out on this blog, the CBO neglected to include the bill's GDP impacts in its earlier study, resulting in findings that grossly downplayed the climate bill's costs.

This week's episode focuses on the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study regarding the impact of the oil and natural gas industry on the U.S. economy. As the study shows, the industry supports 9.2 million workers and contributes more than $1 trillion to the economy. Art Wiese, API's policy analysis manager, discusses the findings with me.

Today is your last chance to write to the government to support the Five-Year offshore drilling plan. At the close of business today, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) will end the public comment period, tally the emails and letters, write a report on its findings, and help the Secretary of the Interior decide whether to implement the government's offshore drilling plan.

Yesterday, API hosted bloggers for a conference call focusing on the status of upcoming energy legislation and API's current legislative priorities. API President and CEO Jack Gerard took questions from the bloggers, along with API experts John Felmy, Doug Morris and Kyle Isakower. Topics discussed included the Waxman-Markey bill and access to domestic reserves of oil and natural gas.

The Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars released a study today examining federal subsidies (direct subsidies, tax preferences and loan guarantees) to traditional fossil fuels and renewables.

In response, however, I would like to point out that assertions that oil and natural gas companies receive subsidies through programs like the Highway Trust Fund, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are ludicrous. This study is an irresponsible rendition based on a contorted recycling of government data that should never be used to craft national policy - especially a tax increase on the oil and natural gas industry that would raise energy costs and kill jobs.

Did you know that the top economist at the U.S. Treasury believes the United States is producing too much oil and natural gas?

The Committee on Natural Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing today on a proposal called the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009. While it's often referred to as an energy bill, it's actually an Un-Energy bill.

If passed, this bill would consolidate the leasing functions of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) into a single office at the Interior Department. At present, the MMS manages the leasing of offshore land for energy development, and the BLM manages a similar process for onshore leasing.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday proclaimed that the recession appears to be ending. He based his comments in part on new data showing that consumer spending in August hit its highest level in three years.

According to the Commerce Department, consumers increased their spending by 2.7 percent last month. Although a portion of this rise was attributed to the Cash for Clunkers program, spending still rose a respectable 0.7 percent after stripping out expenditures for cars and gasoline.

Today, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he would terminate the Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) program, which collected $6.6 billion in oil and gas deliveries in fiscal 2008, and is one of the government's largest sources of non-tax revenue. The program is an effective means of ensuring that the American people receive fair compensation for development of federal resources.

This week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the United States, and high on the agenda in discussions with President Obama should be our country's energy partnership with Canada.

The prime minister's visit underscores the importance of developing more of North America's oil and natural gas. Even with additional alternative energy, continued development of oil and natural gas is of utmost importance to both Canada and the United States as these resources will continue to drive our economies and provide employment for millions. Canada's ample resources--including its oil sands--will help meet our future demand.

This week's episode tells the story of the Energy Citizens rallies, which provided concerned Americans the opportunity to voice their opinions on the Waxman-Markey climate bill. The series of 20 rallies held across America gave people from all walks of life the chance to let their representatives in Washington know they need to protect jobs and support responsible energy legislation.

In this blog, I've discussed a Heritage Foundation study that finds gasoline prices would increase significantly in order to meet emissions limits imposed by the Waxman-Markey legislation.

Now, Heritage has developed an interactive map that demonstrates Waxman-Markey's effect on gas prices in your state. It lists current prices as well as projections for 2012 and 2035 should this legislation be enacted.

An editorial from today's Oil & Gas Journal makes an important observation at a time when Congress is poised to enact wide-ranging energy and climate change laws. The editorial notes, "...affiliation with the oil and gas industry discredits whatever a person might say on the subject of energy." The author argues that this tactic muffles the industry's political voice and expertise and exposes the United States to costly mistakes on energy.

If you're looking for a laboratory where environmental and energy policy is being tested, look west toward California. Over the past several years, California's elected officials have enacted some of the strongest requirements to curb air pollution, create its own recipe for gasoline and transition to a new form of diesel fuel earlier than anywhere else in the country.

Yesterday, API Chairman J. Larry Nichols told Congress that the Obama administration's $80 billion tax increase on America's oil and natural gas industry is based on myths and would result in less oil and natural gas for consumers, higher energy costs and kill jobs at a time when the nation's economy needs all the help it can get.

Back in February, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that he was extending the public comment period for the Draft Proposed Program on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy development. The comment period ends right around the corner--September 21, 2009--and at this time the Minerals Management Service (MMS) will analyze comments and make recommendations.

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study released today found that the U.S. oil and natural gas industry supports more than 9 million American jobs and makes significant economic contributions as an employer and purchaser of American goods and services.

The study--"The Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the U.S. Economy: Employment, Labor Income and Value Added"--notes that the industry's total value-added economic contribution in 2007 was more than $1 trillion, or 7.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

Today, inspired by a New York Times weekend editorial, Energy Outlook blogger Geoff Styles discusses the Waxman-Markey climate bill and the legislation's potential impact on gasoline prices.

We all know what Astroturf is on the gridiron, but what does it mean when it's applied to a series of very successful Energy Citizens rallies?

Based on what I've seen at six of the rallies, it is a misapplied term that demeans the spirit and the passion of the people who participated. Simply put, it disses them. And those who disrespect them apparently don't understand the depth of their feelings about the misguided Waxman-Markey bill.

Three more Energy Citizens rallies were held on Thursday, Sept. 3. About 200 people attended the rally in Richmond, Virginia; 300 participated in the rally in Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia; and 750 showed up in Detroit, Michigan, which was far more than anticipated.

At each rally, the concerns voiced by the audience were the same. They said they want affordable energy and jobs, and they are encouraging the U.S. Senate to carefully consider the economic impact of the Waxman-Markey bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in late June. As one speaker in Richmond said, the Senate should get it right.

A group that lobbies for ethanol wants consumers to know where their fuel come from, so it has asked Congress to require gasoline dealers to put labels on their pumps. According to The Hill, the ethanol group Growth Energy believes that consumers won't like where some of their fuel originates and are likely to prefer purchasing homegrown ethanol made from U.S. corn.

BP has announced a so-called "giant" oil discovery in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf Mexico that might contain more than 3 billion barrels of oil. The discovery was made at the Tiber Prospect, which is about 250 miles southeast of Houston. As reported by Bloomberg, the well is the world's deepest exploratory well, drilled down to 35,055 feet, a distance that's greater than the height of Mount Everest.

They wore hardhats and fluorescent orange safety vests, and their message was clear. These workers who demonstrated at yesterday's Energy Citizens rally in Anchorage, Alaska, want affordable energy and jobs.

In the heat of the gubernatorial campaign in Virginia, the Commonwealth's Speaker of the House is pushing the federal government to open the coastline to oil and natural gas development. Speaker William Howell has sent a letter to the Obama administration urging the leasing of 2.9 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf along Virginia's coast by 2011.