Bipartisan

A bipartisan group of senators led by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) introduced a resolution Wednesday calling on the Interior Department to streamline the review process for shallow and deepwater drilling applications and provide better guidance to producers seeking new permits.

A bipartisan group of senators led by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has called on the Interior Department to expedite consideration of shallow-watering drilling applications and to provide adequate guidance to those companies seeking new permits.

A bipartisan group of senators led by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has called on the Interior Department to expedite consideration of shallow-watering drilling applications and to provide adequate guidance to those companies seeking new permits.

As broad financial reform legislation neared completion in the Senate, a bipartisan group of senators slipped in an amendment cutting off a move by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to claim sole jurisdiction over natural gas and power transactions. The amendment passed by voice vote on the Senate floor Tuesday night, preserving the existing authority of individual states and FERC in the oversight of the natural gas and power markets.

President Obama announced Saturday that he has signed an executive order creating a bipartisan “National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling,” which will be co-chaired by former federal officials with a decidedly environmental bent.

A bipartisan pair of Alaska lawmakers recently traveled all the way to South Africa to learn about technologies that could lead to commercialization of the state’s vast natural gas resources. One idea is to use the state’s famous oil pipeline to carry natural gas liquids.

A bipartisan coalition of 69 House lawmakers led by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent a letter to the head of President Obama’s Ocean Policy Task Force criticizing an interim report on ocean policy as being lopsided — focusing too heavily on environmental stewardship while virtually ignoring the development of energy resources.

Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Dan Boren (D-OK) are laying the groundwork for a bipartisan Congressional Natural Gas Caucus to focus greater attention on natural gas on Capitol Hill.

A bipartisan group of senators has called on Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who is expected to release the Senate climate change bill Wednesday, to avoid what they believe was a mistake in the House climate bill — the exclusion of natural gas (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19).