Michael Whatley, Consumer Energy Alliance, Intangible Drilling Cost, Tax Credit, Oil and gas drilling incentive, Photo by Dave HarbourHouston Chronicle: Energy alliance official: Keystone approval likely soon.  “I think there’s no doubt the Keystone pipeline will be approved in fairly short order and generate economic growth,” John Northington, counsel to the alliance, said. But Northington and former Bush campaign official Michael Whatley (NGP Photo), executive vice president of the alliance, agreed looming talks about tax reform threaten to hurt independent drilling companies if the tax credit for intangible drilling costs is cut or eliminated. “If you take away those intangible drilling costs (for) independent producers, 25 percent of their drilling budget is going to come off the table,” Whatley said.  **Houston Business Journal and Yahoo! News also report.  

Charlotte Observer by Bruce Henderson.  Piedmont Natural Gas has invested $180 million in a pipeline project that will ship natural gas from the massive Marcellus Shale deposits in northern Pennsylvania to markets in New York and New England.

Politico by Byron Tau.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (NGP Archive Photo) threatened Ken Salazar, punch you out, wild horses, colorado, Photo by Dave Harbourto punch a reporter on a recent trip to Colorado, according to witnesses.  Dave Philipps, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, tried to ask Salazar about his appointments to the Bureau of Land Management and the wild horse population in the state. Specifically, Philipps had questions about the government’s relationship with a wild horse buyer who allegedly sold more than 1,700 horses to Mexican slaughterhouses.  Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Cloud Foundation, witnessed the exchange between Salazar and a reporter. Her organization put out a release cataloging the exchange and blasting Salazar for his treatment of the press. The group captured video of some of the exchange, but stopped recording before the threat itself.  According to Kathrens, Salazar took two questions from Philipps before disagreeing with his line of questioning.  "Don’t you ever … You know what, you do that again… I’ll punch you out," Salazar reportedly told Philipps before ending the interview and walking off.