WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the top oil and gas lobbying group said on Wednesday that the Obama administration will face serious political consequences if it rejects a Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline that has been opposed by environmental groups.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline would definitely play a role in this year’s national elections.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A resurgent green movement is launching a multi-pronged counter-attack against the shale oil and gas boom in the United States that could slow, though ultimately not stop, development.

Building upon their unexpected success in the battle against the Keystone XL pipeline, a renewed onslaught from environmentalists is putting the shale industry on the defensive while adding to costs, limiting expansion and potentially scuttling major projects.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled the first-ever standards to slash mercury emissions from coal-fired plants, a move aimed at protecting public health that critics say will kill jobs as plants shut down.

Facing fierce opposition from industry groups and lawmakers from coal-intensive states, the Environmental Protection Agency said the benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, will greatly outweigh the costs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Interior Department on Tuesday said it hopes to make a decision on the location of a Google-backed offshore transmission line in the next few months, pledging that the project would not face the bureaucratic delays that plagued previous offshore renewable energy projects.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said companies backing offshore projects in the past often never knew whether they would receive the right to develop their proposal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday said it hopes to make a decision on the location of a Google-backed offshore transmission line in the next few months, pledging that the project would not face the bureaucratic delays that plagued previous offshore renewable energy projects.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said companies backing offshore projects in the past often never knew whether they would receive the right to develop their proposal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. offshore oil and gas drillers need to take a more systematic approach to safety in all aspects of their operations to prevent another catastrophe like last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a scientific panel said on Wednesday.

The National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council said in a report that it was a lack of comprehensive safety management that led to the 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s first offshore lease sale since last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying the department has done too little to prevent another disaster.

The department has received bids to develop more than a million acres offered in the western Gulf lease sale on Wednesday, but the groups said the offshore regulator has yet to apply lessons from the nation’s largest offshore oil spill.

WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – BP was hit with five
more safety citations from the U.S. government on Wednesday,
while it also received the latest legal salvo from a major
contractor, as it continues to deal with fallout from last
year’s massive oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010,
which killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels
of oil into the Gulf, has sparked a slew of lawsuits and
federal citations against the companies involved.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – BP was hit with five more safety citations from the U.S. government on Wednesday, while it also received the latest legal salvo from a major contractor, as it continues to deal with fallout from last year’s massive oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010, which killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, has sparked a slew of lawsuits and federal citations against the companies involved.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. offshore drilling safety agency on Wednesday issued five more citations against BP for its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

The new citations come on top of seven “incidents of noncompliance” that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement doled out in October to BP for its role in the 2010 drilling disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.