Researching oil, gas, flora, fin, fauna and fine Southern culture in Houston, but not so intently that we don’t think constantly of our Arctic energy brothers and sisters…and the frigid, local and federal regulatory and statutory challenges they daily face.  Is it true we have allowed at least some sociopaths to take control of government?  (Of course, we can’t speak for Canada.)  -dh

ADN by Richard Mauer.  The Senate bill’s "minimal decrease" from the current tax program on oil and gas, known as ACES, "has an immaterial impact" for industry, said Bob Heinrich, vice president of finance for Conoco Phillips Alaska.  "That’s not to say that the numbers don’t seem big on a dollar basis — our industry works in big numbers," he added. If oil were selling at $130 a barrel, about $25 more than now, "the reduction is almost $300 million to producers, but in the context of the total taxes paid at that price point of nearly $15 billion, it’s immaterial," Heinrich said.  

Drillers, environmentalists not buying Obama’s energy pitch.  msnbc.com.  President Barack Obama  speaks at the TransCanada Stillwater pipe yard in  Cushing, Okla., on Thursday.

U.S. gas pump prices vary based on oil locale Calgary Herald.  Crude oil production has been rising briskly in North Dakota and Canada, but there aren’t enough pipelines to transport it to Gulf Coast refineries. That leaves surpluses that have slashed North Dakota and Canadian prices, benefiting mid-Continent 

Yesterday, CEA President David Holt appeared before the House Natural Resources Committee to provide a national overview on the impacts rising gasoline prices are having on American consumers and businesses.  
 
Read David Holt’s (NGP Photo) submitted testimony here.  Watch the Archived Hearing Webcast here.     Watch YouTube Footage here.
 
Blog, Speaker of the House.  Under the headline “Increasing gas prices threaten recovery of economy,” the Associated Press reports that if gas prices continue soaring “experts fear Americans could pull back on spending, and job growth could stall, posing a potentially serious threat to the recovery.”  The constant refrain from the White House is that little can be done to bring down gas prices, but according to experts at today’s Natural Resources Committee hearing on “Harnessing American Resources to Create Jobs and Address Rising Gasoline Prices,” that’s simply not the case. Here are three steps – all part of the Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators and the American Energy Initiative – that President Obama could take to help address skyrocketing gas prices