News reports focused on Arctic drilling problems experienced by Shell, but the unregulated ship traffic is a bigger concern up North, said Begich, D-Alaska.  More »

New Senate legislation would allow Alaska to collect 37.5 percent of federal dollars tied to oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters near the state, the same share that Gulf Coast states are counting on beginning in 2017.  More »

A bipartisan coalition of senators on Thursday advanced a plan to swiftly guarantee exports of U.S.-harvested natural gas to Japan and other American allies, amid complaints that the Obama administration is dragging its feet on proposals to sell more of the fossil fuel overseas.  More »

Democratic Sen. Mark Begich is pressing the Obama administration to lay out its plans for vetting Shell Oil Co.’s proposal to launch exploratory drilling in Arctic waters. Begich insisted that the company needs certainty in order to prepare for drilling in the Chukchi Sea next summer.  More »

House Republicans today revived long-standing plans to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling, but this time they’re capitalizing on the star power of a reality TV show cast member and a concerns about the U.S. economy to help advance the proposal. “Ice Road Truckers” star “Big Daddy” Carey Hall joined lawmakers from Alaska in insisting that ANWR drilling could raise hundreds of billions in revenue for the federal government.  More »

Concerns about offshore drilling in foreign territories and oil transported in international waters close to the U.S. dominated a Senate hearing today that was designed to focus on last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Senators pressed administration officials and industry representatives about the environmental risks from tankers carrying Canadian crude and offshore drilling planned for Cuban waters this fall.  More »

Just as quickly as gas prices dropped — the news sent prices down for West Texas Intermediate crude by $5 — GOP lawmakers criticized the decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  More »

Democrats’ bid to raise $21 billion over the next 10 years by hiking taxes for the nation’s five biggest oil companies failed a key procedural vote in the Senate today — but the issue isn’t going away anytime soon. The subject is already fodder for political ads, and Democratic leaders vowed that they will insist on a repeal of industry tax breaks as part of legislation to raise the nation’s debt ceiling this summer.  More »

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., wants to get rid of a 20-year-old ceiling on the amount that oil companies can be forced to pay in economic and natural resource damages after spills. But today he said he hoped to forge consensus with oil-state senators who worry unlimited liability would force independent producers out of the Gulf of Mexico.  More »