The government shutdown from October 1 through October 17 caused a delay in the delivery of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton scheduled to be revealed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on National Fossil Day,  October 16, 2013. The fossil, discovered in Montana, is one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever recovered and was meant to be the main attraction at the annual Earth Science Week event. The Army Corps of Engineers was unable to transport the nearly 80% complete fossil  because key staff were furloughed.

On October 10, The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing on what Chairman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) called "abusive actions" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against U.S. mining operations, including EPA’s watershed assessment of Bristol Bay, Alaska. The goal of the hearing was to offer solutions to create jobs and grow the economy by bolstering America’s mining industry. Due to the government shutdown, no representatives from the EPA were able to attend.

This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled not to grant the Sierra Club, Clean Energy Future Oklahoma, and the East Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission a temporary injunction to stop the construction of the Gulf Coast pipeline, the southern extension of Transcanada's Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline.

On October 16, the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a joint oversight hearing entitled As Difficult As Possible: The National Park Service’s (NPS) Implementation of the Government Shutdown. The hearing examined the actions taken by the NPS following the government shutdown, which began on October 1 due to a lapse in fiscal year (FY) 2014 appropriations.

On October 2, following the government shutdown on October 1, President Obama signed H.R. 527, the Responsible Helium Administration and Stewardship Act, averting the shutdown of the federal helium reserve in Texas. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) federal helium reserve, which supplies the U.S. with 40 percent of its helium supply, was in danger of shutting down due to a lapse in funding.

On October 1, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to discuss proposed energy legislation. The legislation in question would approve an agreement between the U.S. and Mexico to develop oil and gas reserves that cross the international maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, along with 15 other senators have submitted the latest round of legislation outlining  a comprehensive minerals policy for the United States. The new bill, S.___ the Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013, calls for the Department of the Interior to establish a list of critical minerals for the U.S.

PIRA Energy Group, a New York energy market consultancy, released a report this October indicating that the U.S. has surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of oil in 2013. The report’s total oil supply includes all forms of liquid oil supply. The report revealed that the U.S. total supply for 2013 is expected to average 12.1 million barrels per day (MMB/D). The U.S. surpassed Russia to become the second largest global supplier of oil in 2012, and this year U.S. production grew at a faster pace than Saudi Arabia’s.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting eleven public listening sessions across the country to solicit ideas and input from the public regarding the best Clean Air Act approaches to reducing carbon pollution from existing power plants. Power plants are the nation’s largest stationary source of carbon pollution, responsible for about one-third of all greenhouse gas pollution in the United States. The EPA hopes to enforce stricter regulations on existing power plants that would cut emissions by 26% by 2020. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) has acknowledged that tax credits normally enjoyed by the oil and gas industry are not off the table when it comes to overhauling the United States’ tax code. In an effort to balance the budget and reinvigorate the economy, lawmakers are looking to reform the tax code, which currently sets the majority of corporate tax rates at approximately 40 percent and marginal federal corporate income tax rates at 35 percent.