When a Texas group wanted to add a little business pragmatism to the conservative mantel, the natural gas industry provided seed money. America's Natural Gas Alliance donated $250,000 to the Texas Conservative Roundtable in 2011, according to ANGA's 2011 tax return, recently made public on GuideStar.org.

A federal appeals court will not reopen a legal challenge to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's 2009 decision to cancel 77 oil and natural gas leases near pristine federal lands in Utah.