A Utah company seeking federal permission to import and dispose of more than 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy has raised its campaign contributions to U.S. lawmakers by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. is donating to members of key energy committees in Congress as it increasingly seeks lucrative federal contracts [...]

Six nominees to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, including a Garfield County representative, were confirmed by a Senate committee on Tuesday, despite protests from Republicans that they weren’t given enough information on their views.
The six were nominated by Gov. Bill Ritter after lawmakers expanded and revamped the commission to make it more responsive [...]

President Bush’s proposed 2008 budget for the U.S. Department of Energy largely passes over “clean coal” projects in Wyoming and the West.
U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., grilled Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman last week for not following certain directives set forth in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Provisions such as a Western coal-gasification demonstration project are [...]

The new chairman of the Senate energy committee says he has no plans to open more of the nation’s coastline to oil and gas drilling, but others on the committee say they won’t let the matter die.
At a hearing Thursday designed to assess the current state of offshore oil and gas drilling, particularly in the [...]

The battle lines have been clearly drawn between the Democrats in Congress, a handful of major names in the international mining industry and the National Mining Association and its coal company members.
The Democrats’ victory in last year’s elections means Congress’s stance on environmental issues has changed dramatically. Gone is the champion of mining and big [...]

A compromise by Florida that led to the opening of a large chunk of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling draws keen interest from Big Oil, but criticism from other sectors.
Under a new law that opens 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling, four coastal states — Louisiana, [...]

Deputy Energy Minister, K.T. Hammond, has disclosed that prices of petroleum products in the country are not determined by crude oil prices as is being perceived by sections of the public.
He told Parliament that following government’s decision to deregulate the petroleum downstream market in 1994, pricing of petroleum products has been based on import parity.
“Product [...]

Senate Republicans have agreed on legislation that would open four times more of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling than the Bush administration was seeking, and a vote on the bill is expected this week.
The Senate’s only energy measure with a chance to pass this year, the bill would open 8.3 million [...]