It’s time for Ohio to “modernize” its severance tax so the state can more fully benefit from oil and gas discoveries there, Gov. John Kasich (R) said in his 2013 State of the State address.

Interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline permitting can involve multiple steps and varying time frames, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.

Canadians are ready to defend the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project on a greenhouse gas reduction basis now that opponents have shifted their arguments to that arena, a TransCanada Corp. executive said.

US Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.), the Energy and Commerce Committee’s ranking minority member, and 12 other Republican senators asked US President Barack Obama to nominate an economic geologist as the US Geological Survey’s new director.

The four companies planning to build a natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to a port on the state’s southern coast for liquefaction and export have met a critical deadline, Gov. Sean Parnell (R) announced on Feb. 15.

Two Republicans on the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced legislation on Feb. 15 to keep the US Environmental Protection Agency from bringing gasoline with a 15% ethanol blend (E15) onto the market.

Governors of three US East Coast states asked US Sec. of the Interior nominee Sally Jewell to support offshore energy resource development off their respective states’ coasts.

Transocean Offshore Inc. pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the 2010 Macondo deepwater well incident and agreed to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties, US Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Feb. 14.

The US Government Accountability Office—which has identified areas it believes pose a high risk to federal government operations every 2 years since the early 1990s—added climate change to its list for the first time.