Results tagged “energy”

A Walton Sun (Florida) op-ed, authored by geoscientist Al Swiercz and published last week, discussed the benefits of offshore drilling for Florida residents and the United States. Swiercz said that exploration would "not only protect the beauty of our beaches, but allow us to reap the benefits of offshore exploration," including tax revenues, jobs--including "blue-collar" rig jobs which pay upwards of $75,000 per year--and great fishing areas around offshore platforms.

This week, the National Journal's Energy & Environment Blog posed several questions about the Kerry-Boxer climate bill. Among them, "What's your take on the chairman's mark and EPA's analysis?" The blog also invited a number of individuals, including API's Jack Gerard, to discuss the bill's strong points, weak points and provide an overall perspective on the legislation.

More voices are speaking out against the climate legislation being considered on Capitol Hill. Here's a sampling of some of the statements and studies that have been in the news during the past couple of days.

House and Senate leaders are continuing to push for climate legislation despite the fact that far fewer people believe that global warming is a serious problem, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The survey, conducted among 1,500 adults from Sept. 30-Oct. 4, shows that 35 percent of respondents believe global warming is very serious as compared with 44 percent in April 2008.

As I've discussed on this blog, I recently traveled with a group of bloggers to visit man-made islands where drilling for oil and natural gas occurs in coastal waters--the THUMS Islands in Long Beach, CA.

One of the most reliable barometers of drilling activity is the Baker Hughes rig count. Since 1944, Baker Hughes, an oil services company that produces drill bits, has been issuing weekly counts of U.S. and Canadian rotary drilling rigs that are actively drilling for oil and natural gas. The weekly figures are released at noon on the last day of the work week and are regular features in many energy industry magazines and newsletters.

The Weyburn oil field in southern Saskatchewan is the largest greenhouse gas storage facility in Canada. Under a project sponsored by the International Energy Agency, academic institutions and industry partners, the oil field is being injected with carbon dioxide (CO2) piped from a North Dakota coal gasification plant. By injecting CO2 into the oil-bearing rock formation, it's believed that the oil field's life could be extended by 25 years while providing storage for 20 million tons of CO2.

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that a second round of oil shale research and development on leases with vastly diminished potential commercial acreage will resume.

Secretary Salazar's decision is a positive step in the process of developing the innovation and technology needed to bring production from the nation's vast oil shale resources to American consumers.

In this episode, Jane Van Ryan interviews the Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst on energy and the environment, on his recent paper, "Five Things Congress and the President Are Doing to Bring Back Sky-High Gas Prices."

Another voice in the news can be added to the list of those favoring increased access to our nation's offshore oil and natural gas resources. Last week, a Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed authored by Dave Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, discussed the new jobs, increased revenues, and energy security that offshore energy development could bring to the nation and the state of Florida--all with minimal impact to the surrounding environment.

As we've explained in this blog, there's no doubt that the Waxman-Markey climate bill would be very expensive for American consumers. According to studies, it could increase fuel costs, kill millions of jobs and increase the amount of refined fuels imported from overseas. An issue we have not yet discussed is that there is another provision that could result in a massive transfer of wealth from the United States to other countries.

The provision allows for international offsets, which means companies that are having difficulty meeting their U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowance obligations can pay to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world by purchasing international offsets. On the surface, this might appear to be a reasonable--and altruistic--way to recognize that climate change is a global problem. But in actuality, it is an extremely costly experiment that could fall on the backs of American consumers.

Be grateful that energy-rich Canada is our friendly neighbor to the North. A new study released today shows that the development of Canada's oil sands will lead to the creation of more than 340,000 new U.S. jobs between 2011 and 2025. With our national unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, this is very welcoming news.

Two reports indicate that oil demand has probably peaked in the United States and other developed countries and will not exceed pre-recession levels. According to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), oil demand in developed countries, which accounts for 54 percent of overall oil demand, likely peaked in 2005.

"In the past three decades, the petroleum business has transformed itself into a high-technology industry... In some cases, these improvements have been evolutionary, while in others, they have been revolutionary."- Doug Morris, API, before the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, Oct. 15, 2009.

Virginia Delegate Chris Saxman--a featured speaker at the Richmond Energy Citizens rally--authored an op-ed in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting the one-year anniversary of lifting the Congressional OCS moratorium and the continued lack of progress on offshore energy development.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee held a hearing this morning to examine the Waxman-Markey climate bill's potential costs and benefits. But when the senators asked direct questions about the bill's impact, the government witnesses often had difficulty answering. As one witness said, "There's a significant degree of uncertainty."

How do you define the expression "energy security?" To many people, it means having a secure supply of energy to support the American way of life--ample gasoline for the car, heat for the home, and chemicals to make products used in households and hospitals throughout the United States.

U.S. oil and natural gas drilling rose slightly in the third quarter of 2009, but it still was quite sluggish. "API's Quarterly Well Completion Report: Third Quarter" showed that total well completions rose 10.2 percent from the second quarter of this year, but the total number of wells and dry holes was down 46 percent from 2008's third quarter.

An op-ed in last week's Osceola News Gazette by Florida state representative Mike Horner discussed the importance of domestic oil and natural gas production, and how production could bring additional revenues, thousands of well-paying jobs, and greater energy security to Florida and our nation.

Did you know that President Obama's 2010 budget proposal calls for more than $80 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry? If the budget is approved by Congress, these new energy taxes could have a negative impact on virtually everyone in the United States.