Free Republic

More than 40,000 upstream oil and gas jobs in Texas could be lost as energy sector activity here continues to slow, said Karr Ingham, the economist who compiles the monthly Texas Petro Index tracking the industry’s economic indicators. The latest data point that spells trouble for the industry: data released Friday indicating that that the number of rigs operating in the U.S. was down 74 this week, the rig count’s biggest one-week decline in more than six years. “We’re now at the point where there’s likely to be some damage inflicted on the Texas economy,” Ingham said. “I’d sure be...

BNSF Railway more than tripled the number of trains it moved through Nebraska with a million gallons of oil or more aboard late last year and has changed its route to bypass Lincoln, at least for some trains. Reports filed with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency show that late last year BNSF expanded the number of oil trains it was required to report from three per week in July to a range of seven to 14 per week. Railroads must report trains that carry at least a million gallons of oil -- about 35 tank cars -- from the Bakken...

Despite an oversupply of crude oil that has halved trading prices and led the U.S. to consider lifting a 40-year-ban on crude exports, completing the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline remains a priority, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Friday in Beaumont. “We know that as global demand goes up, prices will go up,” Cornyn, R-Texas, said. “I think we ought to take advantage of the opportunity we’ve been given because great innovative drilling techniques devised in the United States and the great natural resources we have … help grow our economy and help keep America safe.” Cornyn delivered...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is apparently causing headaches for his fellow Republican senators once again by pushing what many consider a sensible policy at what some call an inopportune time, according to a Sunday story in the Washington Examiner. Instead of repealing Obamacare or curtailing immigration, Cruz is proposing an amendment to the Keystone XL Pipeline authorization bill that would lift the 39-year ban on crude oil exports. The question, which many Republican senators have, is this the right time and is Keystone XL the right vehicle?As has previously been the case, Cruz has the facts on his side. The...

President Barack Obama has promised to veto that legislation as long as the State Department is still conducting its formal review. Late last week, the Nebraska Supreme Court eliminated another obstacle, tossing out a lawsuit challenging the pipeline's route. Pipeline opponents in Nebraska filed two new suits Friday over the proposed route. The 1,179-mile pipeline would carry an estimated 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines on its way to Gulf Coast refineries. Since the pipeline was proposed six years ago, it has sparked intense debate over its potential...

Harmony was never in Obama's vocabulary. Discord, on the other hand, is his middle name. Confront President Obama and his obstructionist pen that hovers prepared to slash their efforts to dial back his ruinous agenda President Obama, the King of “Me,” confiscates credit for anything that even sniffs of a positive scent. Right now, that’s the smell of economic growth from privately owned and developed oil fields. His own policies have shuttered federal oil leases, selling them at a premium with crippling restrictions while extorting oil companies (most particularly BP after the Gulf spill in 2010) to pay royalties on...

The White House confirmed Thursday that Canada has postponed the North American Leaders Summit scheduled for next month but would not say whether tension over the Keystone XL oil pipeline is the reason. Canada, this year’s summit host, announced Thursday that the summit will be held later in 2015, though no exact date has been set. Some Canadian media outlets, such as the Toronto Sun, reported that the meeting was rescheduled because of President Obama’s continued indecision on Keystone, which...

Energy Policy: In spite of dramatically lower methane emissions from fracking, according to the EPA's own data, the agency wants to impose draconian regulations on the oil and gas industry similar to those on coal. The new rules that the White House announced on Wednesday aim to cut oil emissions of methane, a target of environmental groups, by 45% below 2012 levels, despite the fact that the emissions already show a sharp decline even as shale oil and gas production has skyrocketed. This war-on-shale action mirrors the administration's war on coal, with EPA rules impossible to meet economically and sometimes...

Not since the multiplication of the loaves and fishes near the Sea of Galilee has there been creativity as miraculous as that of the Keystone XL pipeline. It has not yet been built but already is perhaps the most constructive infrastructure project since the Interstate Highway System. It has accomplished an astonishing trifecta: It has made mincemeat of Barack Obama’s pose of thoughtfulness. It has demonstrated that he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of the most basic economic realities. It has dramatized environmentalism’s descent into infantilism. Obama entered the presidency trailing clouds of intellectual self-regard. His carefully cultivated persona was...

Taking direct aim at the oil-and-gas industry, President Obama on Wednesday put forth long-awaited regulations on methane emissions, setting an ambitious goal of reducing those emissions by 45 percent over the next decade. The move comes just days before the State of the Union address and underscores that, in the final two years of presidency, Mr. Obama is looking to cement his legacy on climate-change and environmental issues...

After it was narrowly defeated last November, approval to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline has just passed in the Senate, and is expected to pass in the House of Representatives (by the end of next week). President Obama plans to veto the legislation, after which it will be sent back to both houses of Congress for another round of voting.The contentious 1,200-mile, 36-inch-wide steel pipeline would transport both heavy oil and bitumen—low-grade crudes that need extra refining before they can be made into products such as gasoline—from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The pipeline has...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is threatening to keep senators working until after midnight Tuesday to break Democratic opposition to moving ahead with approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. ADVERTISEMENT McConnell warned he would keep the Senate in session until the early morning if that’s what is necessary to begin consideration of amendments to the Keystone bill as soon as possible. “Some of our colleagues on the other side continue to filibuster the motion to proceed to this bill. All senators should know that we will get on this bill today and begin the amendment process — either this...

The Senate on Monday formally launched debate on legislation to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, with a procedural vote that also set the stage for weeks of arguments on climate change, crude exports and oil spills. The chamber voted 63-32 to limit debate on a motion to proceed to the Keystone bill, surpassing a 60-vote threshold needed to shut off a potential filibuster on the measure but falling short of the 67 “aye” votes that would be needed to override a presidential veto. Eleven Democrats crossed party lines to vote with the chamber’s Republicans in support of launching debate on...

The Senate will start debate on Monday on a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline as Republicans, who have made the project their first priority of the year, try to line up enough votes to overcome a potential veto by President Barack Obama. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, a co-sponsor of the bill to approve TransCanada Corp's pipeline, has about 63 supporters, including all 54 Republicans. That is four short of the 67 needed to overcome an Obama veto. The White House has said the president would reject the bill if it reaches his desk. Hoeven said...

Myles UdlandJanuary 15, 2015Good morning! It is a new week and crude oil is making new lows.(snip)(snip)

Now that the U.S. economy is showing signs of life, President Obama is not wasting a moment to take credit for this recovery. “The steps we took nearly six years ago to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990’s,” he said in a recent speech. For sure we can expect the president to continue this message in his upcoming State of the Union address, as he works to rebuild his credibility, thinking toward his final two years in office and his place in history. And...

It was 2008 when TransCanada initially filed an application with the U.S. government to construct the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline to carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. Illinois Senator Barack Obama had just secured the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party. Hurricane Ike made landfall, Usain Bolt set world records at the summer Olympics, and the Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. More than six years and many significant historical events later, TransCanada still does not have approval to build an environmentally safe pipeline that would create jobs and...

Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation face a difficult balancing act. Their supporters who are advocates of renewable energy anticipate them to vote against the pipeline. President Obama has threatened to veto the present pipeline bill due to the fact it quick-circuits his administration’s assessment course of action. But Minnesota politicians who oppose the pipeline flirt with a attainable lengthy-term raise in oil train traffic on tracks that quite a few constituents say are already overloaded with railcars carrying flammable fuel. “It is a precarious position to be against oil train transport and to be against the Keystone pipeline,”...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress and a state supreme court have thrown the political hot potato known as Keystone XL straight back onto President Barack Obama's lap. So loath is Obama to making a decision about the proposed oil pipeline that deliberations have entered their sixth year — a period nearly as long as Obama's time in office. He's blamed the seemingly endless delays on bureaucratic formalities and parochial issues in Nebraska, even when skeptics claimed that the politics of the next election were giving the president cold feet. Now the election is over, the Nebraska issue is resolved,...

Want to know why the president and his team are stampeding to talk about global warming despite increasing public disinterest in the topic, a bitterly cold and snowy winter and deepening skepticism about the costs of clamping down on industry as the economy again falters? It turns out that money talks. From the NYT: “A billionaire retired investor is forging plans to spend as much as $100 million during the 2014 election, seeking to pressure federal and state officials to enact climate change measures through a hard-edge campaign of attack ads against governors and lawmakers. The donor, Tom Steyer, a...