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The energy industry — thanks to advances in drilling and production techniques resulting in growing natural gas and oil supplies — can lift the U.S. economy out of its doldrums, but only if government regulation and permitting requirements don’t get in the way, speakers at a recent industry conference in Houston said.

Elected officials in Cecil Township, PA, voted Monday to have the township solicitor look into mounting a legal challenge to Pennsylvania’s new Marcellus Shale law on the grounds that it usurps local zoning authority.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. says it is “disappointed” and “concerned” over a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct water sampling in Dimock Township, PA, saying the action duplicates a state investigation, causes regulatory uncertainty and conflicts with Obama administration policy.

Energy analysts with Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co. (TPH) on Thursday climbed on the train to anywhere but here for natural gas prices, cutting their outlook for 2012 by more than $1.00 to $3.25/Mcf from $4.32.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has declined to have the city join a lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) over Marcellus Shale development, despite a resolution from the City Council supporting such a move.

A newly formed joint venture (JV) of Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and Avista Capital Partners has closed its first acquisition: 15,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania at an average cost of less than $1,500/acre, Carrizo said. The deal is the second announcement from the company in the same week as it strengthens its finances to plow ahead in the shales.

In Mexico there is no debate about shale gas having potential, but there is an ongoing discussion in the federal government concerning whether to focus on finding out exactly what that potential might be. A relatively new government body, the National Commission for Hydrocarbons (CNH), is pushing other parts of the federal government to pursue a more diversified energy strategy.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is backing out of the Rockies to focus on Appalachia and the Midcontinent.

Eight members of Congress have told President Obama that the United States’ national security interests are dependent on natural gas, and urged the president to support efforts to expand exploration, development and production, especially through hydraulic fracturing (fracking).