The gap in natural gas prices has opened quickly, leaving companies that make investment decisions years in advance scrambling to catch up. As recently as 2007, U.S. natural gas prices were only about 20 percent lower than Europe's, not enough to fundamentally reshape markets.
Two key US senators Wednesday plan to unveil a new bill that would expand revenue sharing for oil and natural gas production in federal waters, accelerate payments for coastal states and extend payments to renewable energy development.
All along the millions of miles of highways that crisscross North America, wheels are in motion to remake the truck stop.
A draft State Department report concludes that building the Keystone XL pipeline would not speed up development of Canada's oil sands, dealing a blow to environmentalists who claim Keystone would worsen climate change.
Fracking is short for "hydraulic fracturing," and the catch-all term used to describe the process of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock formations deep underground. The process goes roughly like this: A company drills down more than a mile deep into the shale rock formations. Then comes what is known as "horizontal drilling" - effectively, the drilling turns 90 degrees, so that the well is exposed to more rock than it would be otherwise.
More than half the Senate on Wednesday urged quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ramping up pressure on President Barack Obama to move ahead with the project just days after he promised in his inaugural address to respond vigorously to the threat of climate change.
Ten GOP governors and the premier of Saskatchewan are putting fresh pressure on President Obama to greenlight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries. Premier Brad Wall and the governors, in a letter to Obama Thursday, call the project "fundamentally important" to the future economic prosperity of the United States and Canada.
Advances in hydraulic fracturing technology have powered the American natural gas boom. And now hydraulic fracturing could be increasingly powered by the very fuel it has been so successful in coaxing up from the depths. Oil- and gas-field companies from Pennsylvania to Texas are experimenting with converting the huge diesel pump engines that propel millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet down well bores to break apart rock or tight sands and release the natural gas trapped inside.
Detroit is beginning to produce vehicles that can run on both natural gas and regular gasoline. Anyone who has natural gas service in their home can tap off the same gas line to gas up their vehicle - at least until more commercial natural gas stations are established. Those facts make shale natural gas even more important to states that can produce it.
The new Matt Damon film 'Promised Land' is giving voice to critics of natural gas production, but the film faces opposition too as "fracking" goes Hollywood. The movie arrives in the middle of political and regulatory battles over fracking, the controversial oil-and-gas development method that's enabling a U.S. production boom. The Beltway has taken notice as green groups highlight the movie and conservatives attack it.
