EXIM Bank Amends Mozambique LNG Loan. Earmarks $1.8B for Offshore Work
The U.S. EXIM Bank has amended its previously approved September 2019 direct loan supporting U.S. exports for the development and construction of the Total-operated LNG project located on the Afungi Peninsula in northern Mozambique.The original scope of the $4.7 billion loan for the project has been amended from exclusively the onshore portion of the LNG plant and related facilities to also allocate an estimated $1.8 billion to support the project’s offshore production.
EPA Announces Funding to Reduce Diesel Emissions
Preference given to fleets in areas facing air quality challenges. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of grant funding to modernize the nation’s diesel fleet by retrofitting or replacing vehicles with cleaner, more efficient diesel engines. EPA anticipates awarding approximately $40 million in Diesel Emission Reduction Program (DERA) grant funding to eligible applicants, subject to the availability of funds.
U.S. Court Says Regulator Incorrectly Set Renewable Fuel Standard
A U.S. court on Friday said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency erred when setting standards for how much renewable fuel must be included in fuel sold in the United States and ordered the agency to try again, according to a court filing. The EPA had sought to lower the amount of biofuels that needed to be mixed into U.S. fuel. But the U.S. Appeals Court, District of Columbia Circuit said the agency had incorrectly…
US Top Court Sides with Venezuela over Oil Rigs Claim
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a lower court's ruling that had allowed an American oil drilling company to sue Venezuela over the seizure of 11 drilling rigs in 2010 but allowed the business another chance to press its claims. Siding with Venezuela, the justices ruled 8-0 that a lower court that had given the go-ahead for the suit must reconsider whether claims made by Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company can proceed. Writing for the court, Justice Stephen Breyer said the U.S.
Clean Power Plan Lawsuit Put on Hold
A U.S. appeals court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to put on hold a legal challenge by industry and a group of states to former President Barack Obama's regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants, rules that the Republican president is moving to undo. A 10-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the request to put…
US Justices Drill Down on Venezuela Oil Rig Dispute
Some U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared wary about the foreign policy implications of making it too easy for foreign governments to be sued in U.S. courts as they considered a lawsuit by an Oklahoma-based oil drilling company that claims Venezuela unlawfully seized 11 drilling rigs six years ago. The eight justices heard an hour-long argument in Venezuela's appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed one…
U.S. States Sought to Keep Exxon Climate Probe Secret
A pact that 15 U.S. states signed to jointly investigate Exxon Mobil Corp for allegedly misleading the public about climate change sought to keep prosecutors' deliberations confidential and was broadly written so they could probe other fossil fuel companies. The "Climate Change Coalition Common Interest Agreement" was signed by state attorneys general in May, two months after they held a press conference to say they would go after Exxon…
US Supreme Court to Hear Venezuela Oil Rig Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to weigh Venezuela's bid to block a lawsuit filed by an American oil drilling company that claims the South American country unlawfully seized 11 drilling rigs six years ago. The high court will review a May 2015 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that allowed one of the claims made by Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company to move forward.
U.S. Top Court Rejects Ecuador Challenge to Chevron Arbitration Award
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Ecuador's challenge to a $96 million international arbitration award in favor of energy company Chevron Corp in a dispute over the development of oil fields in the South American country. The high court's refusal to hear the case leaves in place an August 2015 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding a 2011 award in Chevron's favor from The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands.
Possible Scalia Replacement Previously Represented Exxon, Rio Tinto
One possible contender to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court is an Indian-American appeals court judge, Sri Srinivasan, who has pro-business credentials and a stellar resume. If he was nominated his background may make it more politically challenging for Republicans as they plan to block anyone put forward by President Barack Obama. Srinivasan, 48, has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since he was confirmed on a 97-0 bipartisan vote in the U.S.
How Saudi Arabia Defended U.S. Market Share
Saudi Arabia has successfully defended its share of the U.S. oil market even as rising domestic production from shale and growing pipeline imports from Canada have cut seaborne imports from other countries. Saudi crude exports to the United States have remained relatively constant at around 1.2 million barrels per day since 2009, even as tanker arrivals from other countries have halved from 6 million to 3 million bpd (http://tmsnrt.rs/1Kf7s4t).
Kemp: How Saudi Arabia Successfully Defended its US Oil Market Share
Saudi Arabia has successfully defended its share of the U.S. oil market even as rising domestic production from shale and growing pipeline imports from Canada have cut seaborne imports from other countries. Saudi crude exports to the United States have remained relatively constant at around 1.2 million barrels per day since 2009, even as tanker arrivals from other countries have halved from 6 million to 3 million bpd.
U.S. Top Court Upholds Electricity Markets Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a major Obama administration electricity markets regulation aimed at encouraging efficiency in the market by having grid operators pay large users to reduce consumption at peak times. The court ruled 6-2, with Justice Samuel Alito not taking part in the case, to reverse a May 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to strike down the 2011 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulation.
Ecuador Challenge to Chevron Award Rejected
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected Ecuador's challenge to a $96 million international arbitration award in favor of Chevron Corp, the latest development in a decades-long dispute over the development of oil fields in the South American country. The District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an award rendered by a panel at The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands, after Chevron…
US Supreme Court Fires Warning Shot Across EPA's Bow
In a rare defeat for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it on Monday to reconsider whether the EPA's regulations on mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants are appropriate and necessary. While the EPA considered the costs and benefits of various regulatory options later in the rule-writing process, the court faulted it for not considering compliance costs at the beginning to determine whether regulation was appropriate in the first place.
US Court Rejects Early Challenge to Obama Power Plant Regulations
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected an industry and state challenge to the Obama administration's proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the various lawsuits objecting to the plan were premature because the regulation has not yet been finalized. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley)
US Energy Dept OKs Cove Point LNG Export
The U.S. Energy Department said Thursday it has given the final approval for Dominion Resources to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Cove Point, Maryland plant. The Cove Point plant is investing $3.8 billion in new infrastructure to ship up to 0.77 billion cubic feet of LNG starting late in 2017 to countries with which the United States does not have free trade agreements. The DOE said it conducted "an extensive careful review" of Dominion's applications and considered the economic…
Man Charged for Fraudulent Deepwater Horizon Spill Claim
A North Carolina resident was arrested for allegedly making a fraudulent claim on the fund set up to compensate victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Michael R. Rosella, 45, of Wilmington, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with an indictment returned last week and unsealed following his arrest. The indictment by a grand jury in the District of Columbia charges Rosella with one count of mail fraud…
US Court Rules for Groups Defending Historic Site from Coal Mining
A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in favor of environmental groups fighting to protect the site of a historic 1920s-era labor battle between miners and companies in West Virginia from being destroyed by modern-day coal mining. The Sierra Club and a coalition of local historical associations sued the government for removing the Blair Mountain Battlefield in southern West Virginia from the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, a move the group said would open up the area to large-scale surface mining.
U.S. Top Court Rejects Challenge to Ozone Regulations
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an industry challenge to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations issued by Republican former President George W. Bush's administration that set standards for ozone pollution. By declining to hear the case, the court left in place the so-called primary air quality standards designed to protect public health, which Democratic President Barack Obama's administration defended. Those rules, which set air quality standards that U.S.
