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Obama Administration Readies Big Push on Climate Change

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is planning several actions this summer to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions from wide swaths of the U.S. economy, including trucks, airplanes, oil and natural-gas operations and power plants, kicking into high gear an ambitious climate agenda that is a top legacy item for the president. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce as soon as this week draft rules to cut carbon emissions from big trucks, and separate plans to regulate carbon emissions from airlines, according to people familiar with the proposals. In the coming weeks, the EPA is expected to propose rules cutting emissions of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—from oil and natural-gas operations. And in August, the agency will complete a suite of three regulations cutting carbon from the nation’s power plants, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda. The regulations represent the biggest climate push by the Obama administration since 2009, when […]

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Crude oil shipper settles in Lac-Megantic rail disaster

Miami company that sold crude oil tied to Lac-Megantic disaster in 2013 contributes to multi-million dollar settlement for vicitms. Photo by Steven Frame/Shutterstock MIAMI, June 9 (UPI) — A company tied to the sale of the oil on the train that crashed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013 said it agreed to contribute to a settlement for victims. World Fuel Services Corp. said it agreed to contribute about $90 million to a compensation fund for victims of the 2013 derailment as part of a settlement with the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and its bankruptcy trustees. "We believe that participating in the settlement and contributing to the compensation fund is in the best interests of our shareholders and will also aid in providing closure to those affected by this tragic accident," the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Michael Kasbar, said in a statement. A World Fuel subsidiary sold the […]

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AAA: Gas prices may have peaked

Motor club AAA says prices at the may be stabilizing and at, or near, what may be the peak high for the year. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) — The national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States is likely near its yearly peak, motor club AAA said. AAA reports a national average price for a gallon of gasoline at around $2.74, a slight decrease from Monday but nearly 3 percent, or roughly 10 cents, more than one month ago. The current national average has held steady for the better part of the week. "The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline has remained steady over the past week and continues to hover near at what many expect to be the highest average of the year," the motor club said in its weekly status report. Drivers in Midwest […]

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Canada Petroleum Producers Cut 2030 Output Forecast

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers cut its 2030 oil production forecast by 17 percent as capital expenditures slipped after crude prices tumbled. The world’s third-biggest holder of crude reserves will produce 5.3 million barrels a day, down from 6.4 million forecast a year ago, CAPP said. The organization cut its forecast after oil dropped to $42 a barrel this year from near $108 in June as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained quotas amid a surge of U.S. shale oil. The drop has curtailed capital expenditure by oil and gas producers to C$45 billion ($36.5 billion) in 2015 from C$73 billion last year, CAPP said. Expenditure in the oil sands fell to C$23 billion this year from C$33 billion. “Companies are reverting to expansion of existing projects,” said Greg Stringham, a vice president at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “As far as new projects, those are […]

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Heitkamp Urges Repeal of Oil Export Ban

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (ND) Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Senator from North Dakota is urging lawmakers to repeal a 1970’s era ban on oil exports. Related: Oil Export Ban May Hurt Economy Taking the Senate floor last month, Heitkamp said that the existing restrictions on U.S. oil producers are harming America’s competitiveness. Heitkamp hopes to level the playing field by doing away with restrictions that hinder America’s economic growth and that threaten our long-term goal of becoming energy independent. Not everyone is in favor of lifting the ban, however. Athan Manual, the director of the Lands Protection Program at the Sierra Club, said his biggest concern is how increased oil consumption around the world will impact climate change. “We don’t think we should be exporting global warming, basically, to other countries,” he said. “We think all the countries in the world should do what the U.S. is doing and dramatically […]

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Santa Barbara Rejects Exxon’s Request to Haul Crude in Trucks

A local official in Santa Barbara, Calif., rejected Tuesday an emergency request by Exxon XOM -0.32 % Mobil to use large trucks to haul its crude oil along a scenic highway until a pipeline that recently ruptured and caused a large spill is fixed. “There is not adequate evidence that a defined emergency exists,” said Dianne Black, the county’s assistant director of planning and development. She was enlisted to make the decision after the county’s planning director, Glenn Russell, recused himself since he recently owned stock in Exxon. Exxon was the main customer of a pipeline owned by Plains All American Pipeline PAA -0.46 % that burst three weeks ago due to corrosion, spilling 100,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean and on beaches and killing wildlife. Exxon was using the pipeline to haul some 30,000 barrels a day of crude oil, and is being forced to scale […]

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Russian Pause in Dollar Purchases Helps to End Ruble’s Tumble

The Bank of Russia paused foreign-currency purchases for the first time since it started interventions last month, helping to arrest a slump in the ruble. Officials didn’t buy or sell foreign currency on June 5, according to data released Tuesday. The currency gained 0.5 percent to 55.704 against the dollar by 5:44 p.m. in Moscow, strengthening for a third day. Russia has damped this year’s biggest major-currency rally, with the ruble tumbling 15 percent since its interventions. Any further depreciation risks stoking inflation and threatening policy makers’ efforts to reduce borrowing costs. “It seems that the central bank decided that it has done enough, at least for now, in terms of foreign-currency interventions,” Piotr Matys, a London-based foreign-exchange strategist at Rabobank, said by e-mail. “The Bank of Russia is likely to be flexible when it comes to buying hard currencies to rebuild its reserves.” Bank of Russia Governor Elvira […]

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Gazprom Given Six Weeks to Respond to EU Antitrust Charges

The extension gives Gazprom until mid-September to go through the case file and work on disproving some of the EU charges, or propose a settlement. “Gazprom is currently going through the extensive case file, analyzing it thoroughly and preparing the appropriate reply,” the company said. The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust watchdog, confirmed the extension. “Gazprom argued that it would need additional time, including to assess the issues raised and translate documents,” the commission said. The commission filed formal charges against Gazprom in April , claiming it was hindering competition and charging unfair prices in some Central and Eastern European countries. Gazprom has rejected the charges as politically motivated. —Tom Fairless contributed to this article.

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G7 leaders agree to phase out fossil fuels by end of century

‘Binding is a very important term’, said Merkel. (Photo: Bundesregierung/Gottschalk) Leaders of the world’s top economies Monday (8 June) gave a boost to global talks on tackling climate change by saying the global economy should be decarbonised by the end of this century. The high-level backing by G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – increases the likelihood of almost 200 countries agreeing to a long-term goal when they meeting for climate talks in Paris in December. The conclusions after the meeting in Bavaria, southern Germany, said the Paris agreement should have “binding rules at its core to track progress towards achieving targets”. They also call for a “legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force” that would apply to all countries. “Binding is a very important term”, said German chancellor Angela Merkel after the two-day meeting ended. The G7 also endorsed […]

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