Our energy system is evolving due to depletion of cheap fossil fuels and the need for carbon emission constraints. Government and business are under pressure to tackle the energy challenges of rising energy costs, energy security, and reducing greenhou…  More »

Welcome to “Building Hydrocarbon Bonds!” I’m David Vaucher, the lucky author of this new “Voices” column in FuelFix.  More »

Industry experts told members of Congress the Interior Department’s potential regulations to hydraulic fracturing –  fracking —  on federal lands is a threat to jobs and energy security and an effort they consider “duplicative.” Texas Rep. Bill Flores, who has been an ardent opponent of proposals to increase federal oversight of hydraulic fracturing, said regulations should be  Read More  More »

While championing the benefits of new energy extraction methods, Republican House members accused energy oversight agencies of research that misled the public on environmental and health risks.  More »

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the winners of its third-annual “battle of the buildings” Energy Star National Building Competition. 3,000 institutions from around the country competed to see which could reduce its energy use the most in a year, and several Texans came out on top. The winner of the competition was an elementary school from  Read More  More »

  Friday’s column, available on houstonchronicle.com: Offshore drilling safety still isn’t making the grade. Saturday marks the third anniversary of the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, and many of the improvements that have been made continue to focus on response to disaster than on prevention. For far too long, offshore safety has been  Read More  More »

It has been a while since my last blog post. In the climate change legal world, most of what has happened in the past few months has been of the utilitarian, and not the showy variety. California continues to implement its Global Warming Solutions Act (A.B. 32) and has already held two auctions of the [...]  More »

Texas on the Potomac is pleased to launch a new Sunday feature, Driving the Debate.   Each weekend, we will look at a widely used #hashtag and examine which people, media outlets or pundits are driving the social media debate on the issue.   We kicked off our new feature last week with #immigration and  Read More  More »

The deeply divided House of Representatives divided, well, deeply along partisan lines Friday over a GOP bill to curb the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory powers. The proposal, aimed at preventing energy regulations that would damage the economy, was the subject of a highly charged hearing of the House subcommittee on Energy and Power. A spokesman  Read More  More »

On Wednesday night, the National Press Club in Washington hosted a debate on the passing of the most famous pipeline that doesn’t actually exist: Keystone XL. The debate was part of a series of discussions on energy issues called “The Hard Question” and hosted by Texan journalist Blanquita Cullum. The two “hard questions” posed to  Read More  More »

Rep. Joe Barton called upon an event of biblical proportions to support his beliefs climate change isn’t entirely caused by humankind. Barton acknowledged his skepticism on the cause of climate change during an Energy and Power subcommittee hearing on legislation that would give authority to Congress to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, first reported by Buzzfeed. “I would point out  Read More  More »

Another year, another budget blueprint from President Obama, another attempt to increase the taxes paid by the oil and gas industry. After trying and failing for four consecutive years, the budget to be released this morning by the president includes what senior administration officials describe as “closing of unfair tax loopholes” including “tax loopholes for  Read More  More »