oil and gas development

The Politicized World of Public Lands As Revealed in Hearings of the U.s. House Committee on Natural Resources

The Natural Resources committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recently held three hearings addressing oil and gas resources on federal lands and waters. On June 6 the committee considered several proposed drafts revising various aspects of the onshore oil and gas leasing and permitting processes. The second hearing, on June 14, concerned the proposed …

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Blm Rejects Environmentalist Offer to Buy and Hold Federal Oil and Gas Leases

In February 2016, Utah environmentalist and author Terry Tempest Williams offered to purchase two federal oil and gas leases on property near her home in Southern Utah. Her intention, as stated in a column later appearing in the New York Times, was to keep the resources in the ground “until science finds a way to …

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Social Costs of Oil and Gas Leasing on Federal Lands, Carefully Considered

OVERVIEW: A report filed with the US Department of the Interior recommended that terms governing the leasing of federal land for oil and gas development be updated to reflect social costs associated with such development. While such costs may be policy relevant, I suggest social costs are smaller than the report indicates and the recommended policy …

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Should Governments Raise the Cost of Water Used in Fracking?

Michael Giberson In dry Texas, water use has been one of the bigger of the policy complaints tossed into the policy whirlwind surrounding hydraulic fracturing. A number of water quantity related bills are currently circulating in the Texas legislature and the Texas Railroad Commission (which regulated oil and gas drilling in the state) has considered …

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Promoting Cooperation Instead of Conflict on Public Lands

Michael Giberson A few days ago Shawn Regan and I had an op-ed that appeared in the Denver Post‘s Idea Log online section, “Promoting cooperation instead of conflict on public lands.” We begin: Energy and the environment are often at odds. As America’s energy production reaches record levels, controversies over the environmental impacts of energy …

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Before Getting Too Excited About the Iea’s Forecast of Us Oil Production Leadership…

Michael Giberson Earlier this week the International Energy Agency released their annual World Energy Outlook, and new is a forecast that the United States would surpass Russian and Saudi Arabia to once-again become the world’s largest oil producer, sometime around 2020. The news set off a wave of happy press, i.e. the Wall Street Journal,  …

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Natural Gas “Expectations Were Rewritten in the Last Decade”

Michael Giberson A brief mention, for those of you keeping track of Giberson media appearances at home, of a brief appearance in a brief story on natural gas supply issues on last Friday’s Marketplace radio news program. As the story says, natural gas industry expectations were rewritten in the last decade. (But of course you …

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My Congressman Invites Me to Submit & Join*

Michael Giberson In the inbox this afternoon, an emailed letter from my Congressman, Randy Neugebauer, who queries me (and I guess thousands of my neighbors as well) in this manner: Notice the congressman’s question, “do you believe we should be maximizing the development of our domestic oil and gas resources?” and the button labeled “Submit …

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