Company: Range Resources Corporation

The Obama administration wants to clamp down on shale gas drilling on public lands and set standards that proponents of tougher regulation hope will provide a blueprint for drilling oversight nationwide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration wants to clamp down on shale gas drilling on public lands and set standards that proponents of tougher regulation hope will provide a blueprint for drilling oversight nationwide.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A regional Environmental Protection Agency chief based in Dallas resigned on Monday, days after Republican lawmakers uncovered comments in which he compared his enforcement of energy companies with crucifixion.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A regional Environmental Protection Agency chief based in Dallas resigned on Monday, days after Republican lawmakers uncovered comments in which he compared his enforcement of energy companies with crucifixion.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A regional Environmental Protection Agency chief based in Dallas resigned on Monday, days after Republican lawmakers uncovered comments in which he compared his enforcement of energy companies with crucifixion.

A deep and prolonged slump in natural gas prices has thrown much of the industry’s largest produces into a state of panic and turmoil. As prices have fallen, so have stock prices — with shares of natural gas giants like Chesapeake Energy spacer, Devon Energy spacer, and Encana spacer have fallen twenty-plus percent over the last year.

Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest natural-gas driller in the U.S. and an active user of derivatives for hedging against the ebbs and flows of its core business, recently removed its most of its 2012 derivatives positions, leaving the company naked to big dips in natural-gas futures prices just as they are hitting a ten-year low.

Stocks ended in the red Wednesday in thin trading amid ongoing concerns over the euro zone debt crisis and as investors took a breather following the strong run-up that propelled major averages to multi-year highs.

From the entire S&P 500, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops?