Outstripped

Crude oil prices have shot up this year not because of excessive speculation but because demand has outstripped supply, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) budget and the number of drilling permits processed both have increased, but the volume of protests against land development has far outstripped those gains, Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management, said in a speech to western producers.