What do Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico have in common? They make up the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 6. They also constitute the core of America's energy production, especially oil.
As the national average price for a gallon of gas creeps toward $4, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, the Obama administration's energy policy has devolved into self-parody. President Obama recently announced that he would accelerate the construction of ... the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline. This portion, conveniently enough, does not reach Canada, which yearns to send America petroleum from its oil sands in Alberta. Mr. Obama's move is like building an airport runway while banning the taxiway that would connect it to the passenger terminal.
The Treasury Department's oversight role of a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee to Solyndra LLC was not sufficiently defined, the consultation that did occur was "rushed" and no records were kept as to how Treasury's serious concerns with the loan were addressed, a report says.
Officials from the United States, the European Union and Japan are pledging to work closer together on ways to ensure secure supplies of strategically vital rare earths and other critical materials.
The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit concluded Tuesday with participating nations endorsing a range of measures to make the world safe from nuclear terrorism. But independent experts criticized the summit's "modest" progress and failure to include more binding agreements.
When the summer driving season starts soon, and tension heats up about Iran, gas may reach $5 a gallon. Nothing bothers voters more than paying an extra $20 or $30 every time they fill up. In times like these, they soon might prefer even an oilman in the White House to an ideologue whose opposition to new oil development seems more religious than empirically based.
At a congressional hearing Tuesday on Department of Energy green-energy programs, Secretary Steven Chu said, "I am not an expert on oil reserves."
As gasoline prices climb, President Obama's poll numbers plummet. In February, a Washington Post/ABC poll had Mr. Obama up 6 points against Mitt Romney. Monday's poll has him down 2.
