I was both encouraged and disappointed as I followed the recent U.S. House of Representatives vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will carry 830,000 barrels of oil per day into Gulf of Mexico refineries from Canada.

If you have paid attention to the news lately, you have no doubt seen the tensions, civil war and terrorist attacks facing many countries around the world. What many of these countries have in common is a major influence on the production or transportation of oil and natural gas, which is essential to all developed nations.

Even for those who use public transportation or the relative few who use electric vehicles, gasoline affects everything we do from the price of food to the cost of goods that we purchase for our homes or businesses.