Editor's Notebook

Editor's Notebook: U.S. On Track To Be Oil Exporter

Let’s repeat that slowly so there’s no misunderstanding: "U.S. On Track To Be Oil Exporter."

This was the headline of a report in the Dec. 19 issue of USA Today. According to the article, during the first quarters of 2011, we exported more oil than we imported. This means it’s highly likely that 2011 will be the first time in more than six decades that the United States will be a net exporter of petroleum products, the report said.

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Paying The Dues

The other day I was reading one of the many beautifully written obituaries about Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the heavyweight champion from Philadelphia who died Nov. 14 of liver cancer at the all-too-young age of 67.

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The Keystone XL Imperative

I never thought the Keystone XL Pipeline project would be the climactic event in the environment vs. energy debate.

Now as we approach the final decision, which rests in President Obama’s hands, I’ll bet that he never expected a proposed pipeline would be one of the defining moments of his administration.

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Source-to-Site: DOE Policy Adopting Full-Fuel-Cycle Analysis

The Department of Energy announced a statement of policy adopting full-fuel-cycle (FFC) measures of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) and other emissions in the national impact analyses and environmental assessments in its Energy Conservation Standards Program.

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Editor's Notebook: Courage Under Fire

You can’t really define a hero. Nobody wakes up and realizes he or she is going to face a life-altering event later that day.

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Editor's Notebook: Northern Light

Sometimes it’s hard to know when bad news is really a blessing in disguise, at least for some.

Shell has announced plans to dump its 11.4% stake in the proposed Mackenzie natural gas production and pipeline project, thus dealing another crippling, if not fatal, blow to the long-discussed northern Canada venture.

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Editor's Notebook: Absolute Values

As a nation as well as an industry we should be grateful for the apparent wealth of natural gas we are finding throughout the United States. It means a reliable, relatively inexpensive energy source for years to come in addition to badly needed jobs, tax revenues for governmental entities, and increased energy independence.

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Editor's Notebook: Tough Times

It’s been a tough few weeks: first, two of my all-time sports heroes passed away, baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and wrestling great Randy “Macho Man“ Savage. Around the same time another death may have occurred – one that has been reported periodically over the years but whose time may have finally come.

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Editor's Notebook: A Call For Leadership

April was a great month for the oil and gas pipeline industry and I’m going to tell you why.

Infrastructure integrity/pipeline safety is the biggest issue to affect our industry in years. Recent highly publicized incidents have led many on the outside to question how safe our industry really is.

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Editor's Notebook: Facing The Danger

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: energy is a dangerous business.

Whether laying pipeline in the hinterlands of America or the streets of Philadelphia, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, coal mining beneath the state of West Virginia or staring at the controls of a Japanese nuclear reactor frantically trying to stem a radioactive breach after Mother Nature’s apocalyptic double-header, the energy business is fraught with unexpected danger. No one can anticipate every possible problem.

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