US Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) announced that he would block Rebecca Wodder’s nomination to be Assistant US Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks unless the US Department of the Interior extends hundreds of Gulf of Mexico leases due to expire this year.

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to increase the type and amount of information on commercial chemicals that it collects from chemical manufacturers.

US and European legislators have joined with Syrian dissidents in calling for international sanctions to be imposed on Syria’s oil and gas industry in an effort to bring an end to the country’s ruling regime. 

Energy prices were mixed and relatively flat July 28 despite expectations Tropical Storm Don will come ashore tonight possibly between Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Tex.

The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed new air pollution standards for oil and gas exploration and production operations on July 29 in response to a court order. The standards would require operators to capture natural gas which currently escapes into the atmosphere, the agency indicated.

The US House approved a bill setting a Nov. 1 deadline for the Obama administration to decide on TransCanada Corp.’s application for a cross-border permit for its proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project.

Dissension over revenue sharing with states kept the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on July 21 from voting on a bill to reform federal management of resources on the US Outer Continental Shelf.

US state utility regulators called on more states and groups of states to develop financial and other policies encourage the capture of carbon dioxide from electric power plants for enhanced oil recovery as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners concluded its 2011 summer meeting in Los Angeles on July 20.

Swift action to reduce the growing deepwater exploration plan backlog in the Gulf of Mexico and the approval pace for those plans and associated drilling permits would increase employment in almost every US state; boost tax and royalty revenue for federal, state, and local governments; and improve US energy security, a new study by IHS-CERA and IHS Global Insight concluded.