Compound in Red Meat, Energy Drinks May Have Heart Disease Link

Gut bacteria break down carnitine into another substance that damages blood vessels, study finds

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, April 7 (HealthDay News) -- A compound found in red meat and added as a supplement to popular energy drinks promotes hardening and clogging of the arteries, otherwise known as atherosclerosis, a new study suggests.

Researchers say that bacteria in the digestive tract convert the compound, called carnitine, into trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). Previous research by the same team of Cleveland Clinic investigators found that TMAO promotes atherosclerosis in people.

And there was an another twist: The study also found that a diet high in carnitine encourages the growth of the bacteria that metabolize the compound, leading to even higher TMAO production.

"The [type of] bacteria living in our digestive tracts are dictated by our long-term dietary patterns. A diet high in carnitine actually shifts our gut microbe composition to those that like carnitine, making meat eaters even more susceptible to forming TMAO and its artery-clogging effects," study leader Dr. Stanley Hazen, head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation in Cleveland Clinic's Heart and Vascular Institute, said in a clinic news release.

Hazen's team looked at nearly 2,600 patients undergoing heart evaluations. The researchers found that consistently high carnitine levels were associated with a raised risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke and heart-related death.

They also found that TMAO levels were much lower among vegetarians and vegans than among people with unrestricted diets (omnivores). Vegetarians do not eat meat while vegans do not eat any animal products, including eggs and dairy.

Even after consuming a large amount of carnitine, vegans and vegetarians did not produce significant levels of TMAO, while omnivores did, according to the study in the current issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Although the new study could not prove any cause-and-effect relationship between carnitine and heart damage, the findings may provide a new understanding of the benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets, the researchers said.

"Vegans and vegetarians have a significantly reduced capacity to synthesize TMAO from carnitine, which may explain the cardiovascular health benefits of these diets," said Hazen, who is also vice chair of translational research for the clinic's Lerner Research Institute.

Two heart disease experts said the study yields up important new insights.

According to Dr. Robert Rosenson, it appears that poor eating habits could raise TMAO levels and "increase the ability of the cholesterol to get into our arteries and interfere with the ability of our body to eliminate that excess cholesterol." Rosenson, director of cardiometabolic disorders at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City, said the study "sheds important new information on the association between diet, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events."

Another expert pointed the finger specifically at red meat and energy drinks.

"Most Americans have heard the famous saying 'you are what you eat,'" said Dr. Tara Narula, associate director of the Cardiac Care Unit at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City. "This phrase may be more true and different than we might have imagined."

The new study "brings awareness that many 'supplements' like energy drinks can have the same [vessel-damaging] compounds as red meat," she said. "Energy drinks may not be harmless and can have unseen side effects that consumers should recognize."

As for beef, pork and the like, Narula said that the "real take-away message is the reinforcement of the current recommendations that a heart-healthy diet should have little to no red meat consumption."

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Energy Drinks Linked to Changes in Heart Rhythm

But more research is needed on the caffeine-laden beverages, review says

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Energy drinks boost blood pressure and may make the heart more susceptible to electrical short circuits, new research suggests.

But it's not clear how much of this effect on blood pressure has to do with caffeine, which also is found in coffee, or whether the effect significantly raises the risk of heart problems.

So should you put down your Red Bull or Monster Energy Drink? Not necessarily, experts say.

"I have no real concern that having an energy drink or two will negatively impact most people's health," said Dr. C. Michael White, a professor and head of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut. He has studied energy drinks and is familiar with the new review's findings.

However, he said, "there is enough information in this meta-analysis to make me concerned that there may be pockets of the population who may have an increased risk of adverse events, and more work needs to be done to see if this is true."

In other words, it's possible that some people could be especially vulnerable to the effects of energy drinks.

At issue are the caffeine-laden drinks that have become popular among people looking to stay alert, stay awake or get a jolt. Sixteen-ounce cans of drinks like Monster Energy Assault and Rockstar pack in about 160 milligrams of caffeine, compared with roughly 100 milligrams in a 6-ounce cup of coffee.

Energy drinks also come with other ingredients like sugar and herbs, and medical experts have warned that they can spell trouble.

Industry representatives defend energy drinks, saying they contain about as much caffeine by the ounce as coffeehouse drinks. But people often consume much more of the energy drinks at one time.

In the new report, researchers looked at seven studies. Among them, a total of 93 participants drank energy drinks and had their "QT interval" measured, while another 132 underwent blood pressure measurement. In most of the studies, the participants -- aged 18 to 45 -- drank one to three cans of Red Bull.

The QT interval is an electrocardiogram (EKG) measurement of how the heart resets itself electronically while it beats. A longer interval raises the risk that a "short circuit" will develop in the heart and possibly kill a person.

The review found that the QT intervals lengthened after people consumed energy drinks. Federal officials would raise an alarm if a medication produced this level of an effect, said review co-author Dr. Ian Riddock, a preventive cardiologist at the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, in California.

It's not known if the culprit is the caffeine or the other ingredients, "although we tend to think it's the latter," Riddock said.

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Energy Drinks Pose Risks to Teens, Study Finds

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A new report warns that popular energy drinks such as Red Bull and Rockstar pose potential hazards to teens, especially when mixed with alcohol.

The report, published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics in Review, summarizes existing research and concludes that the caffeine-laden beverages can cause rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, obesity and other medical problems in teens. Combined with alcohol, the potential harms can be severe, the authors noted.

"I don't think there is any sensationalism going on here. These drinks can be dangerous for teens," said review lead author Dr. Kwabena Blankson, a U.S. Air Force major and an adolescent medicine specialist at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va. "They contain too much caffeine and other additives that we don't know enough about. Healthy eating, exercise and adequate sleep are better ways to get energy."

Doctors and parents need to "intelligently speak to teenagers about why energy drinks may not be safe," Blankson said. "They need to ask teens if they are drinking energy drinks and suggest healthy alternatives."

Surveys suggest that as many as half of young people consume these unregulated beverages, often in search of a hefty dose of caffeine to help them wake up, stay awake or get a "buzz."

Sixteen-ounce cans of Red Bull, Monster Energy Assault and Rockstar hold about 160 milligrams (mg) of caffeine, according to the report. However, a much smaller container of the drink Cocaine -- briefly banned in 2007 -- delivers 280 mg in just 8.4 ounces. By contrast, a typical cup of coffee packs a caffeine punch of about 100 mg.

Too much caffeine, Blankson said, "can have troubling side effects." More than 100 milligrams of caffeine a day is considered unhealthy for teens, he noted.

Energy drinks are often served cold and sometimes with ice, making them easier to chug than hot coffee. And many contain additives such as sugar, ginseng and guarana, which enhance the effect of caffeine, the researchers explained.

"We don't know what these additives do to the body after periods of extended use," Blankson said.

Moreover, young people often mix energy drinks and alcoholic beverages, or buy energy drinks that contain alcohol. One-quarter of students surveyed at 10 North Carolina universities said they had consumed energy drinks mixed with alcohol in the past month, the report noted. And 23 university students in New Jersey and nine in Washington state were hospitalized in 2010 after drinking an energy drink spiked with alcohol.

U.S. health officials have sounded alarms about energy drinks as well. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently reported that hospital visits related to the drinks doubled, to almost 21,000, between 2007 and 2011. About 42 percent of cases also included drug or alcohol use, the agency said.

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Energy Medicine and Health

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is the blog of Robert, a seeker of health for many years. Living in Alberta, Canada, Robert wants to share his experiences and knowledge to others who want to achieve an excellent state of health. Not only does he want to achieve that, but he also wants to maintain that state.

His blog is all about exploring the frontiers of health and medicine.

In the blog, you will find a wide variety of topics loosely held by the thread of health and medicine. If you live in a country where the winter blues can get to you, you will appreciate topics such as artificial UV therapy and Vitamin D. You can also pick up a lot of practical knowledge such as how a tired body can mean low oxygen levels, the importance of water intake, and having a sensible diet. More than the physical aspect, though, mental health and psychological topics are covered as well.

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American Energy Works: Jill

Jill is a district manager for Total Safety, a company that provides service solutions for various aspects of the oil and natural gas industry, as well as power-generation and industrial markets. For her, the industry is about future job security: “It’s really an industry that’s not going away.”

Her video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

View the original article here

Bakken Shale: Supplying Energy, Supporting Communities

Check out a couple of new videos from North Dakota in which Hess employees and others talk about how energy development in the Bakken Shale formation is changing lives and growing the state’s economy.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The narrative isn’t complicated. As Hess’ Steven Fretland notes in the first video, the Bakken is believed to hold between 8 billion and 40 billion barrels of oil reserves. Companies developing the energy resources need workers, and workers need places to live and services to support their lives. Fretland, who was raised in North Dakota, says Bakken energy is reversing historic trends:

“Younger kids, after they left, you know, you hated to see them go but then they come back and they decide … it’s where they’re going to have their home and raise a family and hopefully retire with the industry.”

In the second video, Hess’ Steve McNally says hydraulic fracturing that has revolutionized energy development is responsible for North Dakota’s jobs boom:

“The impact on the North Dakota area and the U.S. in the short term is numerous jobs. There’s a tremendous amount of employment opportunities here. For anyone who wants to work, you can get a job.”

The point, underscored in this new industry spot, is that fracking has made an old frontier state like North Dakota a new energy frontier. Previously unreachable shale resources are now available in abundance through responsible development. Learn more at Energy From Shale.org.

View the original article here

Made in America: For a Sustainable Energy Future

Access, common-sense regulation and a governmental approach that encourages energy investments: Each one is integral to an American-made, more secure energy future. Getting there will require continued improvements in efficiency and investments in renewable energy – two areas where the oil and natural gas industry has been a leader. This is the fourth recommendation in API’s recent report to the two political parties’ platform committees.

Today, the U.S. uses about half as much energy for every dollar of GDP as it did in 1980, according to the Energy Information Administration:

Efficiency helps energy companies manage costs, which in turn makes them more competitive and allows them to bring more affordable energy products to consumers.  Efficiency also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Industry is committed to technologies that help the environment, investing $71 billion in developments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2010 – far more than the federal government ($43 billion) and nearly as much as the rest of domestic private industry combined ($74 billion).

This is what energy companies do. They produce the oil and natural gas that run our economy now and which will continue to fuel it in the future. They work on efficiencies that will make our energy go further. They look to the future for additional resource options that will be necessary to complete the energy picture.

The question is whether governmental policies will or hinder these efforts. Some think the path to our energy future should be selected by Washington, using the tax code to preordain winners and losers. They think an industry sector that contributed nearly a half-trillion dollars to the economy in 2010, which already sends $86 million a day to the U.S. Treasury, should be taxed more.

The wrongheadedness of this path was detailed in a Wood Mackenzie study last fall, which compared the likely results of pro-energy development policies with policies leading to higher energy taxes:

With a pro-development approach, America’s oil and natural gas companies can add jobs, increase energy supply and generate more tax revenue for government. Higher taxes on our industry will likely lose jobs, decrease tax revenue and result in less energy production.

The United States has tremendous energy resources to support and grow our economy and meet the challenges of the future. With the right vision and leadership we can stride into the future confidently – as befits an energy-rich nation.

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American Energy Works: Bob

ConocoPhillips’ Bob Morton is chief materials scientist at the company’s technology center in Bartlesville, Okla. The chemical that allowed development of low-sulfur gasoline and diesel – without sacrificing octane and without increasing the cost of the fuel – was developed there, he says.

Coming up with environmentally friendly consumer products is Morton’s mission:

“What I really love about my job is sometimes I’m given the opportunity to see something that nobody has seen before. And when those moments happen truly, those are the things that I think are the most wonderful parts of doing the job.”

Check out Bob’s story:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

View the original article here

Energy: It’s About Jobs

The latest jobs report, showing the creation of just 80,000 new jobs in June, is refocusing the political debate on the economy. How meager is 80,000 jobs? Well, according to UPI that’s “not even enough to keep up with growth in the working-age population,” which last month grew by 191,000. Meanwhile, a Rasmussen survey reports that only 31 percent of likely voters say the president is doing a good or excellent job handling economic issues.

Short analysis: It’s about jobs. Good news: It doesn’t have to be hard.

Energy-related job booms in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and other states are showing what’s possible – in terms of jobs, tax-revenue generation and associated economic growth – when energy development leads the way. The Institute for Energy Research’s Robert Bradley Jr., in an article for Oilprice.com:

"In North Dakota, where drillers are producing crude oil from the Bakken Shale, workers are finding jobs offering wages that are significantly higher than the national average. Truck drivers are being paid $80,000 a year to start. Some workers on oil rigs are being paid six figures. And yet many jobs are going begging. According to the mayor of Williston, 'A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it’s like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up.' In April, North Dakota had a jobless rate of 3.0 percent, the lowest in the country."

Additional detail:

In Pennsylvania, Bradley writes, state analysis projects jobs for drill operators will grow nearly 85 percent this year (compared to sub-3 percent growth otherwise in the state).Expansion is occurring in Texas’ Eagle Ford shale play, Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale, Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale and other energy-rich rock formations, “increasing domestic energy supplies, making energy more affordable, and spawning subsidiary investments in the private sector creating additional jobs.”A steel plant in Ohio is adding 200 jobs to produce more drill pipe.A planned ethane plant in Texas is expected to create 400 jobs.

Bradley:

"These jobs are being created by companies, not the federal government. And they are based on 'made in the USA' technologies that have the potential to greatly increase nation’s energy security and alter the world’s balance of power. As U.S. oil and natural gas supplies increase, some experts believe American energy independence is on the horizon."

On his blog, John R. Hanger connects energy production and employment:

"Jobs are a major product of that commerce and energy production. The 5 biggest energy producing states all have unemployment rates below the national average, but the same cannot be said about the 5 states producing the least energy." 

Meanwhile, Canada, which a few years ago staked its economic revitalization on energy, is looking for U.S. workers to fill anticipated job slots in Alberta. The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation expects a shortage of 114,000 workers in the coming months and has set up the aptly named opportunityawaits.com website to promote job openings. One U.S. veterans group is reaching out to former military personnel and active-duty soldiers who soon will transition to civilian life, encouraging them to consider oil sands and Keystone XL pipeline jobs in Canada. Fox News has a story, here. Again, the point is to recognize the dynamic economic power of the energy stimulus.

No question, U.S. jobs figures for June suggest a still-struggling economy. The administration says it’s not to blame, that there are limits to what a president can do to change the national economic trajectory. Indeed, a president has limited options – so perhaps the first move is to not stand in the way of growth.

Energy is a proven job creator, a shining sector in the weak economy. But the administration is making energy expansion harder, not easier. It is delaying construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and it is restricting offshore energy development. Its permitting policies in the Gulf of Mexico have suppressed production there, costing jobs and economic opportunity throughout the region. It is sending confusing messages on hydraulic fracturing, the shale technology that is unlocking America’s ample energy potential.

America’s oil and natural gas companies are creating good jobs and can create even more. With the right policies this industry can add 1 million new jobs before the end of the decade. Here’s a blueprint for an American-made energy policy.  It’s energy, it’s jobs and it’s within our reach.

View the original article here

American Energy Works: Chris

Chris’ story is one of opportunity – extended and accepted. The oil and natural gas company he works for as a liquid mud coordinator saw work ethic and rewarded it:

“My training is not in energy, engineering or science, but because I was willing to learn, was willing to work, they took me from having no skills to being someone who they’re not afraid to have train the new employees – people who are the future of this company.”

Chris is one of 9.2 million Americans working a job supported by the oil and natural gas industry. Check out his video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

View the original article here

American Energy Works: Tanker Safety Officer

Janet DeCastro of Polar Tankers wanted a life at sea, so she entered the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. One of the requirements for cadets was to go to sea for a year on a commercial vessel, and DeCastro’s assignment was aboard an oil tanker.

The experience has become a 24-year professional career – and is one of 9.2 million jobs supported by the oil and natural gas industry. In the video below, DeCastro talks about the ships on which she serves, and the role she plays ensuring safe delivery of oil and protection of the environment:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and more stories from the people of the oil and natural gas industry, who are at work for America.

View the original article here

Innovation: Making Energy Production Cleaner, More Efficient

When we wrote last week about technologies to mitigate water demands during hydraulic fracturing, we knew we’d find more examples of energy innovation for the simple fact that there’s a lot of innovating going on. Here’s a little bit about two other advances in the area of fracking waste water, as well as another company’s initiative to make the development of Canada’s oil sands cleaner and greener.

Halliburton says it has a suite of solutions to reduce the demand for fresh water in hydraulic fracturing operations, called H2-Forward. You can read more about it, here. Basically, it’s a process that allows drillers to reuse fracturing fluid. Halliburton:

"The service includes new technologies such as CleanWave service that is used to process fracturing flowback and produced water, resulting in a clean brine fully suitable for well site operations including drilling, fracturing and completion fluids. … The system, which can treat 20 bbl/minute, uses an electrical process that destabilizes and coagulates suspended colloidal matter in water. Easy scalability enables quickly treating large volumes of water in reserve and flowback pits and, depending on the operation, treating flowback and produced water in real-time during a fracturing operation. The CleanWave system removes up to 99% of total suspended solids, heavy metals, hydrocarbon and bacteria."

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania-based Epiphany Solar Water Systems’ main product is a system that uses solar power to clean fracking waste water. Consol Energy, which is active in the Marcellus Shale area, recently announced it is investing $500,000 in Epiphany and will run a test site for the purification system beginning next month.

Here’s Ephiphany’s description of its technology:

"Dirty water passes into the distillation unit and instantly vaporizes due to the intense heat focused on the distillation unit. During the vaporization process, any dissolved solids … separate, and living organisms (bacteria) are killed due the intense heat. The water vapor (now void or any impurities) continues to pass through the distillation unit. As the steam reaches colder stages it begins to condense back down into distilled water. From the output of the distillation unit then comes freshly distillated water, safe for consumption."

Calgary-based N-Solv Corporation is promoting a technology it says will reduce the amount of energy needed to produce bitumen from oil sands, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent without using any water. A $60 million field test in Alberta is scheduled for next April. It uses warm solvents such as propane or butane to melt the bitumen deposits, which the company says is more efficient than using in-situ steam technology. You can read more about it on the company’s website, here.

View the original article here

American Energy Works: Driving Economic Growth

Energy-driven economic growth is more than theory in places like Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Chandlersville, about 60 miles to the southeast. Shale energy is building growth in both places – in different ways.

In Mount Vernon, Ariel Corporation is experiencing demand for the reciprocating gas compressors it manufactures, which are used to extract, process, transport, store and distribute natural gas from shale. In Chandlersville, Steve Addis and his wife own and operate Annie’s Restaurant, which is seeing an influx of workers who’re drilling new shale gas wells in the area. Both show how the oil and natural gas industry supports jobs beyond direct industry jobs.

More in this video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

View the original article here

Energy Quest and ‘Britain’s Atlantis’

A couple of fascinating reports detail discoveries at the bottom of the North Sea that some scientists say indicate the existence of “Doggerland,” an area that connected modern-day Great Britain to continental Europe until about 7,000 years ago.

CBS News reports that fossilized evidence of mammoths and other large game, harpoons, flint tools and suspected burial mounds mark settlements of hunters and gatherers who lived on dry land all around the British Isles – in areas connecting England to France and the Low Countries, as well as the area between Scotland and Denmark. London’s Daily Mail calls it “Britain’s Atlantis.”

Interesting stuff, you say, but what the heck does it have to do with energy?

It turns out divers with oil companies that are operating in the North Sea found remains of the submerged world, the Daily Mail reports, and scientists have used industry geophysical modeling data to help piece together what the area looked like when it was dry ground. Research team leader Richard Bates, a geophysicist at the University of St. Andrews:

“Through a lot of new data from oil and gas companies, we’re able to give form to the landscape - and make sense of the mammoths found out there, and the reindeer. We’re able to understand the types of people who were there.”

There’s much work to be done, Bates says: 

"We haven't found an 'x marks the spot' or 'Joe created this', but we have found many artifacts and submerged features that are very difficult to explain by natural causes, such as mounds surrounded by ditches and fossilized tree stumps on the seafloor. There is actually very little evidence left because much of it has eroded underwater; it's like trying to find just part of a needle within a haystack. What we have found, though, is a remarkable amount of evidence, and we are now able to pinpoint the best places to find preserved signs of life."

We’ll let you know if they turn up any signs of pre-historic oil and natural gas exploration.

View the original article here

Launching: American Energy Works.org

The intersection of a recent anti-natural gas fundraiser at the trendy Brooklyn Winery – featuring fabulous culinary delights prepared by a group of talented chefs – and the natural gas that made the evening possible was, well, simply mouth-watering.

New York Daily News columnist Bill Hammond writes that the “Taste of the Marcellus” event last week was hosted by a group called Chefs for the Marcellus, to showcase the kinds of foods they say could be jeopardized if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo OKs hydraulic fracturing in that state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. Hammond:

"Guests were treated to eggplant-stuffed okra, smoked lamb belly with fermented tofu and whipped ricotta jewel on toast — along with wines from the Finger Lakes and beers from Cooperstown’s Ommegang brewery. Th... more »

Jill is a district manager for Total Safety, a company that provides service solutions for various aspects of the oil and natural gas industry, as well as power-generation and industrial markets. For her, the industry is about future job security: “It’s really an industry that’s not going away.”

Her video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds two of the top three issues that Americans care about the most in this election year are … jobs and reducing the federal budget deficit. Check and check. America’s oil and natural gas industry can help with both. Respondents were asked to weigh the importance of a number of issues (see chart), and 92 percent said creating good jobs is “extremely/very important.” On cutting the federal deficit the figure was 86 percent. Jobs and revenue to the government – we can help.

With the right policies in place – increasing access to American natural resources, the right approach to energy regulation, encouraging energy investments and more – our industry could create 1.4 million jobs by 2030. Here’s how the Wood Mackenzie energy consulting firm charts the pot... more »

Energy-driven economic growth is more than theory in places like Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Chandlersville, about 60 miles to the southeast. Shale energy is building growth in both places – in different ways.

In Mount Vernon, Ariel Corporation is experiencing demand for the reciprocating gas compressors it manufactures, which are used to extract, process, transport, store and distribute natural gas from shale. In Chandlersville, Steve Addis and his wife own and operate Annie’s Restaurant, which is seeing an influx of workers who’re drilling new shale gas wells in the area. Both show how the oil and natural gas industry supports jobs beyond direct industry jobs.

More in this video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for Am... more »

ConocoPhillips’ Bob Morton is chief materials scientist at the company’s technology center in Bartlesville, Okla. The chemical that allowed development of low-sulfur gasoline and diesel – without sacrificing octane and without increasing the cost of the fuel – was developed there, he says.

Coming up with environmentally friendly consumer products is Morton’s mission:

“What I really love about my job is sometimes I’m given the opportunity to see something that nobody has seen before. And when those moments happen truly, those are the things that I think are the most wonderful parts of doing the job.”

Check out Bob’s story:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

... more »

View the original article here

A European Perspective on the U.S. Shale Energy Revolution

The intersection of a recent anti-natural gas fundraiser at the trendy Brooklyn Winery – featuring fabulous culinary delights prepared by a group of talented chefs – and the natural gas that made the evening possible was, well, simply mouth-watering.

New York Daily News columnist Bill Hammond writes that the “Taste of the Marcellus” event last week was hosted by a group called Chefs for the Marcellus, to showcase the kinds of foods they say could be jeopardized if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo OKs hydraulic fracturing in that state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. Hammond:

"Guests were treated to eggplant-stuffed okra, smoked lamb belly with fermented tofu and whipped ricotta jewel on toast — along with wines from the Finger Lakes and beers from Cooperstown’s Ommegang brewery. Th... more »

Jill is a district manager for Total Safety, a company that provides service solutions for various aspects of the oil and natural gas industry, as well as power-generation and industrial markets. For her, the industry is about future job security: “It’s really an industry that’s not going away.”

Her video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds two of the top three issues that Americans care about the most in this election year are … jobs and reducing the federal budget deficit. Check and check. America’s oil and natural gas industry can help with both. Respondents were asked to weigh the importance of a number of issues (see chart), and 92 percent said creating good jobs is “extremely/very important.” On cutting the federal deficit the figure was 86 percent. Jobs and revenue to the government – we can help.

With the right policies in place – increasing access to American natural resources, the right approach to energy regulation, encouraging energy investments and more – our industry could create 1.4 million jobs by 2030. Here’s how the Wood Mackenzie energy consulting firm charts the pot... more »

Energy-driven economic growth is more than theory in places like Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Chandlersville, about 60 miles to the southeast. Shale energy is building growth in both places – in different ways.

In Mount Vernon, Ariel Corporation is experiencing demand for the reciprocating gas compressors it manufactures, which are used to extract, process, transport, store and distribute natural gas from shale. In Chandlersville, Steve Addis and his wife own and operate Annie’s Restaurant, which is seeing an influx of workers who’re drilling new shale gas wells in the area. Both show how the oil and natural gas industry supports jobs beyond direct industry jobs.

More in this video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for Am... more »

ConocoPhillips’ Bob Morton is chief materials scientist at the company’s technology center in Bartlesville, Okla. The chemical that allowed development of low-sulfur gasoline and diesel – without sacrificing octane and without increasing the cost of the fuel – was developed there, he says.

Coming up with environmentally friendly consumer products is Morton’s mission:

“What I really love about my job is sometimes I’m given the opportunity to see something that nobody has seen before. And when those moments happen truly, those are the things that I think are the most wonderful parts of doing the job.”

Check out Bob’s story:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

... more »

View the original article here