New lease rules for oil and gas, ethanol gets panned, and the challenges of tackling climate change in Congress

Several papers have takes on the new oil and gas leasing rules Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on Wednesday. All report the critical response from the oil and gas industry, including this account in the Houston Chronicle.

Ben has followed the issue pretty closely.

The government needs to rethink its ethanol policies, according to a study from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy that was reported by Dow Jones.

Ethanol poses economic and environmental risks, the study found. A spokesman for the ethanol industry noted the study’s links to the oil and gas industry. It was funded by an affiliate of Chevron.

Hearst News Service lays out the challenge facing Senate Democrats trying to craft a climate change bill. The obstacles are every bit as high on that issue as they are in the healthcare debate, and maybe higher.

“The plan to cap greenhouse gases blamed for the earth’s changing climate is complicated by election year politics and fears about exacerbating the nation’s economic woes,” Jennifer Dlouhy of Hearst writes.

And after ten days of gains, oil prices fell back a bit yesterday. Bloomberg noted rising inventories of crude oil.

source: thehill