Free Republic

The oil markets are on edge with oil sinking into the $20s per barrel. And last week we reported on one place where oil is already trading in the single-digits. Canada’s bitumen is selling for just $8 per barrel. But even that rock bottom price is higher than what one oil seller earned for a shipment recently. In a bizarre turn of events, Bloomberg reported that Flint Hill Resources, a refining unit owned by the Koch brothers, said that they would purchase sour crude from North Dakota for $-0.50 per barrel. That’s right: a negative price. Oil has become so...

When TransCanada filed its two lawsuits on January 6, company spokesman Mark Cooper said, "TransCanada has undertaken a careful evaluation of the [Obama] Administration's action and believe there has been a clear violation of NAFTA, and the U.S. Constitution, in these circumstances." In the federal lawsuit, filed in Texas, TransCanada is seeking to limit presidential powers to prohibit future presidents from unilaterally rejecting such projects based on how the United States might be perceived by the international community. Environmentalists want to leave untapped oil reserves in the ground and fought successfully over the past seven years to have the president...

The U.S. says it wants to help finance an oil pipeline in Africa. TransCanada took Uncle Sam to court last week to reclaim some of the damage done by the Obama Administration’s multiyear, drawn-out rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. It may not come up in the litigation, but someone should point out that the same Obama Administration that rejected Keystone seems to have no problem supporting a new oil pipeline project in Africa. That was the story last week out of Kenya, where U.S. Ambassador Robert Godec told Kenya’s energy minister that Washington would help Nairobi raise $18 billion...

The U.S. government says it will help Kenya get the financing it needs to build an $18 billion pipeline from the oil fields in the country's northwest to its southeastern Indian Ocean coast to help it become a net exporter of oil. The pipeline would stretch nearly 500 miles from Lokichar in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to the coastal town of Lamu, and would be an almost impossibly expensive project for the East African nation. Yet there is enough oil there to make the plan worthwhile. The pan-African financial institution Ecobank Transnational Inc. says it has proven reserves of about...

The Canadian company that proposed the Keystone XL oil pipeline filed a lawsuit over the U.S. government's rejection of the project and announced it plans to file a second legal challenge that will seek more than $15 billion in damages.

North Carolina's citizens could see an annual energy savings of over $134 million in a few years. That's what Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy was told regarding the benefits of a large natural gas pipeline project that should be underway soon. The commission met on Tuesday, Jan. 5, and heard an update on the progress of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia to near Norfolk and then down into North Carolina. Bruce McKay of Dominion power company said that construction on the nearly $5 billion project could begin later this year and be in service...

TransCanada Corp. said it will submit a claim that US President Barack Obama’s Nov. 6 denial of the company’s Keystone XL crude oil pipeline’s cross-border permit application was arbitrary and unjustified under Section 6 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The president’s decision also exceeded his power under the US Constitution, the Calgary-based transmission company said in a lawsuit filed on Jan. 6 in the US District Court for Southern Texas’s Houston Division. The actions challenge the Obama administration’s ruling that approving the project’s cross-border permit would not be in the US national interest more than 7 years after...

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 6 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp sued the U.S. government in U.S. federal court on Wednesday, alleging President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution. Obama rejected the cross-border crude oil pipeline late last year, seven years after it was first proposed. TransCanada also filed legal action under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying the pipeline permit denial was "arbitrary and unjustified." As part of the NAFTA claim, the company was seeking $15 billion.

The battle over the Keystone XL oil pipeline reignited Wednesday afternoon with a lawsuit against the Obama administration charging the White House unfairly, illegally and unconstitutionally killed the project last year. In its lawsuit, TransCanada, the Canadian company proposing the massive project, asserts that President Obama — who blocked Keystone as part of a larger plan to control greenhouse-gas emissions and fight global warming — exceeded his constitutional authority in rejecting the project. The company also filed a separate action claiming the president’s decision was “arbitrary and unjustified” and violated the North American Free Trade Agreement. “TransCanada’s legal actions challenge...

Gas pipes worth 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) are to be left stranded on the shores of the Black Sea after Russia's decision to suspend work on the Turkish Stream pipeline, a potent symbol of Moscow's falling out with Ankara. Russia has set out to punish Turkey after it shot down a Russian warplane in Syria last week, imposing trade sanctions and releasing data it claims proves Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is involved in illegal oil deals with Islamic State. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday work on Turkish Stream, a pipeline intended to pump Russian gas...

A company that owns the largest oil pipeline system in Wisconsin is considering construction of a major new pipeline that is likely to rekindle many of the arguments from the Keystone XL debate. Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. told investment analysts in October the company was contemplating building a new line that would start in Superior and travel the length of the state. Executives say they are weighing many factors: an anticipated political fight, the pace of new oil development in Canada and the prospects of higher oil prices. Crude oil's sharp price decline has curtailed many new oil projects, but the...

An energy study released today by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey concludes that New England does not need additional natural gas pipeline infrastructure to meet peak winter energy demand and that energy efficiency and "demand response" would be the best solution over the next 15 years for both consumers and the environment. The long-anticipated study concludes that New England's power system is not facing an imminent reliability threat through 2030. Healey, who acts as utility ratepayer advocate in Massachusetts, commissioned the study in July. "As we make long-term decisions about our energy future, it's imperative we have the facts," Healey...

Both TransCanada Corp. and city-owned Enmax Corp. confirmed they laid off staff Wednesday as a provincewide economic slowdown blamed on low commodity prices hits pipeline and utility sectors. "This is a difficult time for all of our employees and contractors, as it is for those at many companies right now. These decisions aren't made lightly," said TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper in an e-mail. He said the company wouldn't provide details on the reductions until they are complete, refusing comment on anonymous social media postings that claim the layoffs are being rolled out over three days, through Friday, and involve hundreds...

The federal government's failure to secure the Texas-Mexico border continues to put critical oil and gas infrastructure in the state at risk, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman David Porter said in a Nov. 16 letter to the Homeland Security Department. Citing several news articles, Porter said ISIS has attacked against oil and gas pipelines in the Middle East, and to do so in Texas could be part of the terror group's plans. In 2013, the Yemeni oil minister said the destruction resulted in almost $1 billion in lost revenue. Porter was echoing sentiments he expressed in a letter last year to...

The Keystone XL Pipeline is officially dead. Last week, President Barack Obama rejected the proposed pipeline, wrapping things up after years of staying firmly undecided on the issue. "The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States," Obama said during a 10-minute press conference. "I agree with that decision." Of course, environmentalists hailed the decision as a major environmental victory. The Sierra Club thanked Obama "for taking courageous action" in his decision to finally, finally shut down any hope that the pipeline would ever be approved. But the thing...

President Obama said Monday that the Keystone pipeline and other such fossil-fuel development projects would make Earth "uninhabitable." "We've got to lead by example, because ultimately, if we're going to prevent large parts of the Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable, then we're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them," Mr. Obama told cheering grassroots supporters at a gathering in Washington.

They've shooed pipeline surveyors from their pastures, made anti-pipeline signs for a protest at the county courthouse and at appearances by the Virginia governor. They've also kept up pressure on local officials. As the leader in this multigenerational band of family activists, Carolyn Reilly has found the experience exhilarating and bruising. "There are days when I am in tears in frustration and exhaustion," she said. "Then there are days when I'm fired up and ready to fight." From New England to North Carolina, scattered insurgencies have formed in opposition to a spider web of pipelines up and down the Eastern...

President Obama has junked the Keystone XL pipeline. His stated reason: The U.S. needs to lead the "serious action to fight climate change." His real reason is different. 'America," Obama said, is "now a global leader" in the climate war, "and frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership." He insists now is the time to "protect the one planet we've got while we still can." Though his rhetoric will resonate with those who want to hear that sort of bunkum, the rest of us recognize its vast emptiness. Obama's decision Friday was based on nothing more than...

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced on Friday that he had rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ending a seven-year review that had become a symbol of the debate over his climate policies. Mr. Obama’s denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he seeks to build an ambitious legacy on climate change. “America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Mr. Obama said...

Issues statement on Obama Administration’s rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued the following statement after the Obama Administration rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline:“Today, President Obama once again confirmed what most of us already knew: he does not care about American jobs or the American economy. He remains controlled by a radical environmentalist agenda, which seeks the elimination of whole segments of our economy.“It’s also notable that President Obama’s decision today is in direct contravention to the wishes of Congress, not to mention the recommendation of his own State Department. The State...