FRACKING OR FOOD??!

California fracking opponents aiming to stop development of massive state oil reserves are focusing their drive this year around the state's record-breaking drought, arguing oil production would suck sorely needed water from farms and homes.

California Rep. Marc Levine told Reuters last week that he will co-author an upcoming bill that would place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the state, and said he will use the drought, which could be the state's worst ever, to bolster his position.

"The drought is a game changer on fracking," Levine said. "We have to decide what our most precious commodity is—water or oil? This is the year to make the case that it's water."

Demonstrators protest against fracking outside the State Capital after California Governor Jerry Brown delivered the State of the State address in Sacramento, California, Jan. 22, 2014.

A moratorium bill failed last year on a vote of 37 to 24, although another bill requiring greater disclosure on fracking, including water use, passed.

State Sen. Holly Mitchell, Levine's co-sponsor on the bill, is not planning to focus on the drought, but environmentalists already are capitalizing on it, picketing Gov. Jerry Brown at events including his announcement of the drought.

"Fracking uses water we just can't spare," said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for environmental lobby group Environment California.

Fracking has created an energy boom in the U.S. and has the potential to drastically increase oil production in California Monterey Shale deposit, which federal officials have estimated holds up to 15 billion gallons of oil, more than most estimates for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and twice the reserves of North Dakota's Bakken shale oil deposit.

Bad for gas!!!

2 billion in workers wages!!

Cheap energy!!

Choose energy!!

HARD WINTER MEANS MORE OIL PRODUCTION

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Brent crude eased back after hitting a five-week high above $109 a barrel on Monday as investors look ahead to more U.S. and Chinese economic data this week that could shed greater light on the demand outlook in the world's two largest oil consumers.

Investors will also closely track speeches this week from the new head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, for assurance that monetary policy will stay loose.

(Read more: Crude ends higher, lifted by hunger for heating oil)

March Brent crude fell 33 cents to $109.24 a barrel by 0349 GMT, easing from a session high of $109.75, its loftiest since Jan. 2.

U.S. crude for March delivery was down 3 cents at $99.85, after rising to $100.46 earlier in the session, the highest since Dec. 27.

"We are striking resistances on both charts, Brent and West Texas. I suspect that's containing the exuberance in the market," CMC Markets chief strategist Michael McCarthy said.

"Should we push through say $100.50 on West Texas and $110 on Brent, we could see a spike on technical buying that could continue the rally."

(Read more: Cheaper crude and fuel exports help US refiners' profits)

Oil jumped more than $2 on Friday as investors overlooked lower than expected U.S. non-farm payroll data to focus on a frigid winter that has boosted oil products demand.

"The overall picture of the economy remains one coming out of recession and quite clearly in recovery mode," McCarthy said.

Brent prices could also be supported by tighter Forties supply this year as Britain's biggest oilfield, Buzzard, will undergo a total nine weeks of maintenance in 2014, rather than the two weeks traders had expected.

Both the oil benchmarks appeared overbought on technical charts, pointing to lower prices, said Tetsu Emori, a commodity manager at Astmax Investment.

(Read more: Oil giant warns of 'significantly lower' profit)

Investors were also treading cautiously amid risks in emerging economies, he said.

Easing geopolitical tensions over Iran's nuclear program weighed on oil prices as supply from the OPEC producer could rise if Tehran reaches a final deal with world powers.

Iran has agreed to start addressing suspicions that it may have worked on designing an atomic weapon, the U.N. nuclear agency said on Sunday.

Iran and six world powers are due on February 18 to start a final round of talks aimed at reaching a broader diplomatic settlement with the Islamic state.

Deadly oil!!!???

Kerry's Kitchen is where Casselton residents gather for gossip and comfort food, especially the caramel rolls baked fresh every morning. But a fiery rail accident last month only a half mile down the tracks, which prompted residents to evacuate the town, has shattered this calm, along with people's confidence in the crude-oil convoys that rumble past Kerry's seven times a day.

What was first seen as a stopgap measure in the absence of pipelines has become a fixture in the nation's energy landscape -- about 200 ''virtual pipelines'' that snake in endless processions across the horizon daily.

It can take more than five minutes for a single oil train, made up of about 100 tank cars, to pass by Kerry's, giving this bedroom community 20 miles west of Fargo a front-row seat to the growing practice of using trains to carry oil.

(Read more: US, Canada team up to avoid deadly train wrecks)

A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota

''I feel a little on edge -- actually very edgy -- every time one of those trains passes,'' said Kerry Radermacher, who owns the coffee shop. ''Most people think we should slow the production, and the trains, down.''

Casselton is near the center of the great oil and gas boom unleashed these last few years. And it has seen up close how trains have increasingly been used to transport the oil from the new fields of Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, in part as a result of delays in the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

About 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled by rail last year to the nation's refineries, up from 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.

But a series of recent accidents -- including one in Quebec last July that killed 47 people and another in Alabama last November -- have prompted many to question these shipments and have increased the pressure on regulators to take an urgent look at the safety of the oil shipments.

In the race for profits and energy independence, critics say producers took shortcuts to get the oil to market as quickly as possible without weighing the hazards of train shipments. Today about two-thirds of the production in North Dakota's Bakken shale oil field rides on rails because of a shortage of pipelines. And more than 10 percent of the nation's total oil production is shipped by rail.

Since March there have been no fewer than 10 large crude spills in the United States and Canada because of rail accidents. The number of gallons spilled in the United States last year, federal records show, far outpaced the total amount spilled by railroads from 1975 to 2012.

Railroad executives, meeting with the transportation secretary and federal regulators recently, pledged to look for ways to make oil convoys safer -- including slowing down the trains or rerouting them from heavily populated areas.

(Trains go up to roughly 35 miles an hour through towns and at higher speeds outside populated areas.)

They also agreed to speed up a review of tougher standards for the train cars used for oil. And last Thursday, safety officials urged regulators to quickly improve industry standards.