New legislation in Pennsylvania could help the state compete with Ohio and West Virginia for a huge petrochemical refinery by offering millions of dollars in tax breaks for big businesses.  More »

A top state regulator and his deputy were removed last year after ignoring pressure from Gov. Jerry Brown to relax rules for companies seeking to tap California’s oil, according to a newspaper investigation.  More »

The North Dakota Senate’s Republican majority leader says the Legislature needs to provide a greater share of state oil tax collections to local governments.  More »

Halliburton is reporting that its net income jumped nearly 50 percent in the final three months of 2011 as rising oil prices sparked new drilling projects.  More »

The greatest spill threat from the Keystone XL wasn’t oil, it was hyperbole.  More »

Congressional supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline are exploring legislation that might circumvent the Obama administration’s denial of a permit for the project by letting Congress or an independent federal agency approve it.  More »

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman expressed concern that a federal decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline could create legal problems for the state.  More »

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus said cutting taxes and securing approval for a massive oil pipeline are top congressional priorities this year and the Montana Democrat expressed optimism that deals can be reached despite the recent bitter partisan stalemates.  More »

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will deliver fresh water to four homes in a northeastern Pennsylvania village where residential water wells were tainted by a gas driller. The agency also said it will begin testing the water supplies of dozens more homes as it ramps up its investigation more than three years after homeowners say the water supply was ruined.  More »

Chevron Corp. says it is still trying to extinguish a five-day old fire on its rig off Nigeria’s coast after presuming two foreign workers dead.  More »

BP, Transocean and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. should be found liable before trial for violations of federal pollution laws stemming from the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, lawyers for the U.S. argued at a hearing in federal court in New Orleans.  More »

Two groups of scientists at Cornell University are dueling over whether natural gas from shale is better or worse than coal when it comes to global climate change.  More »