Page 3 - John Walliser News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

After the price of crude oil plummeted to $75 a barrel, which marked the lowest price since December of last year, big oil companies kept consumer gas prices artificially high, according to new analysis by Accountable.US. Chris Marshall, research manager for the group, said instead of passing cost savings down to consumers who have been paying high prices for months, big oil has continued to line the pockets of its wealthy shareholders and executives. "While prices at the pump have been hurting American families, oil and gas companies are making record-shattering profits," ...

New rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would require regular inspections of all methane-emitting oil and gas production sites throughout the country. In Pennsylvania, groups that support the rules say they'll open the door for more jobs in the natural-gas industry. Isaac Brown, executive director of the Center for Methane Emission Solutions, noted there is a market now for technologies and companies to help energy producers address emissions, which means they'll need more workers. ...

The state risks health and highway funding if it doesn’t pass regulations on oil and gas pollution.

Renewed attempts by Pennsylvania House Republicans to boost natural gas production by ending a ban on new drilling on public lands, among other measures, are unlikely to succeed because the industry already owns many unused leases on those lands, and because it lacks the pipeline capacity to take any new gas to market even if it was produced, analysts said.

The measures seek to halt Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on new drilling under state forests.