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Climate Change Study Finds U.S. Is Already Widely Affected

The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects. Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than two degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century. “Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the scientists declared in a major new report assessing the situation in the United States. “Summers are longer and hotter, and extended […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Short-Term Energy Outlook

Highlights During the April-through-September summer driving season this year, regular gasoline retail prices are forecast to average $3.61/gallon (gal), 3 cents higher than last year and 4 cents higher than projected in last month’s STEO. The projected monthly national average regular gasoline retail price falls from $3.72/gal in May to $3.51/gal in September. EIA expects regular gasoline retail prices to average $3.48/gal in 2014 and $3.39/gal in 2015, compared with $3.51/gal in 2013. Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $108/barrel (bbl) in April. This was the 10th consecutive month in which the average Brent crude oil spot prices fell within a relatively narrow range of $107/bbl to $112/bbl. New pipeline capacity from the Midwest into the Gulf Coast helped reduce inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub to 25 million barrels by the end of April, the lowest level since October 2009. The discount of WTI crude oil to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Florida’s Fuel Dwindling as State Braces for Hurricanes: Energy

Florida , the biggest gasoline market on the U.S. East Coast, is enduring a supply squeeze and higher prices just a month before the start of the hurricane season . The state, surpassed only by California and Texas in gas consumption, has no refineries and relies on tanker and barge deliveries for 97 percent of its supply. Retail gasoline has risen to the third-highest level ever seasonally and stockpiles are about 7 percent lower than a year ago. Florida’s fuel market underscores how the shale-oil revolution created winners and losers, with the Gulf Coast awash in cheap crude and other regions missing out because they lack transportation and refining capacity. A shortage of U.S.-flagged tankers that Florida relies on for deliveries and hurricanes after June 1 may spur higher prices. “People are thinking we’re flush with oil and that there’s more stability and lower prices,” Ryan Mossman, a vice […]

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EIA Proposes Crude Gravity Survey

The Energy Information Administration wants to start collecting information about the density of oil produced in the U.S. to better inform the debate over lifting restrictions against crude exports. The agency, which is the statistical arm of the Energy Department, would begin publishing the average API gravity and sulfur content of domestic crude oil on a state-by-state basis in December 2015, under a proposal published today in the Federal Register, according to Jim Kendell, who heads the EIA’s Office of Oil, Gas and Coal Supply Statistics. Companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) have urged the U.S. government to ease restrictions against most exports of unrefined crude from the U.S. Others, such as Valero Energy (VLO) Corp., say the U.S. is benefiting from existing rules. One issue at the center of the debate, the EIA said in its proposal, is the density of U.S.-produced oil. Proponents of lifting export […]

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Both sides bury dead as Ukraine slides towards war

Both sides have been burying their dead as Ukraine slides further towards war, with supporters of Russia and of a united Ukraine accusing each other of tearing the country apart. Tuesday was generally quieter than past days in most of eastern and southern Ukraine, but violence flared at dusk in the eastern port of Mariupol, where a spokesman for pro-Moscow militants told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency that one person was killed and three wounded in an attack on a checkpoint. In Kramatorsk, a separatist-held town in the east that saw an advance by Ukrainian troops at the weekend, the coffin of 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova was carried through streets stilled by barricades of tires and tree trunks on Monday. Scattered red carnations traced the route. At the Holy Trinity Church, seven priests led mourners in prayer for a woman killed by large caliber bullets, which […]

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Crude Recovers Ground But Still Feels Oversupply Pressure

Brent WTI crude futures recovered somewhat Tuesday after falls in the prior session, but with limited upside apparent in a well-supplied global market. Brent crude for June delivery was up 13 cents at $107.85 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. WTI crude for June delivery was up 14 cents at $99.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Morgan Stanley says a bearishness is likely to continue, in a climate of high supply and refinery maintenance. "Non-OPEC supply growth remains elevated, while turnarounds and returning supply from Brent crude oil outages should keep price action muted in [the second quarter]," they wrote in a note to clients. "However, fundamentals turn more bullish in [the third quarter]," they wrote, as maintenance season ends at refineries and they require more crude. The other factor exerting downward pressure on prices continues to be Libya, and its promised return […]

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Natural Gas Prices End Three-Session Skid as Weather Pushes Demand

Natural-gas futures narrowly ended a three-session skid Monday as weather-related demand highlighted doubts about producers’ abilities to replenish stockpiles. Prices for the front-month June contract rose 1.4 cents, or 0.3%, to $4.688 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Monday’s incremental gain puts natural gas back within 3% of the two-month high it hit early last week before the string of losses. Natural gas prices have stayed relatively flat day-to-day as traders are divided about the dueling influences of record supply and growing demand. Unseasonably high temperatures that are pushing demand for air conditioning and gas-fired electricity helped prices rise as high as $4.73/mmBtu Monday morning, but those gains faded in the afternoon. "I’m still a little surprised," said Kyle Cooper, managing director of research at IAF Advisors, a Houston consulting firm. "The market just seems very, very complacent." Cooper and […]

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IAEA Inspectors Commence Iran Visit Ahead of Nuclear Talks

Inspectors from the United Nations atomic agency arrived in Iran to visit sites related to the country’s nuclear program before talks between the Islamic republic and world powers resume next week. International Atomic Energy Agency Inspectors, who landed in Tehran today for the two-day trip, are expected to visit the Saghand uranium mine and the Ardakan concentration plant, state-run Press TV news channel reported, citing Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. Iran has agreed to provide relevant nuclear information and managed access to these sites in line with seven “practical steps” agreed to in February with the IAEA to shed more light on its nuclear activities. The measures need to be implemented by May 15. Iranian officials and the IAEA will also discuss today the nation’s Arak heavy-water reactor, state-run Mehr news agency reports. The reactor has been a source of concern for the U.S. and its […]

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Dozens dead in continuing Iraq violence

Violence in Iraq, including shelling in a rebel-held city and an attack targeting Shia pilgrims, has killed more than 30 people in 24 hours, officials have said. It came as officials counted ballots from the April 30 general election, the first since US troops withdrew in late 2011, and amid a protracted surge in nationwide unrest that has sparked fears of a return to the large-scale sectarian killing sprees of 2006-2007. In Fallujah, just a short drive west of Baghdad, shelling in southern areas of the city killed 11 people and wounded four others, Ahmed Shami, a doctor, said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombardment, which began on Saturday evening and continued into Sunday. In a sign of the significant power of anti-government fighters, all of Fallujah and parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, have been out of government control since early January. […]

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South Sudanese Army Seizes Town Used as Base by Rebel Leader

South Sudanese government forces seized the stronghold of the country’s rebel leader and the capital of oil-rich Unity state from insurgents, drawing criticism from the U.S. for violating a January truce. Government forces yesterday retook Unity’s capital, Bentiu, and Nasir, the town in neighboring Upper Nile state used as a base by former Vice President Riek Machar, army spokesman Philip Aguer said by phone today from the national capital, Juba. Rebel spokesman Mabior Garang confirmed the army had recaptured the towns. “It’s not a fragile takeover,” Aguer said. Nasir is “very crucial because that was the headquarters of Riek Machar.” The government expects attacks on the oil-producing state to cease as a result, he said. Fighting erupted in the world’s newest nation on Dec. 15 with President Salva Kiir accusing Machar of leading a coup, a charge Machar denies. Violence has left thousands of people dead and forced more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple