Free Republic

The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Industry executives have flagged the issue to senior White House officials and Cabinet members in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing dialogue with the U.S. energy industry, the people said. The warnings came as recently as late last month as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and other sources began showing that fuel makers were...

The company behind the project cancelled it and the steel that was in ground has been removed, but it’s on the president-elect’s energy to-do list. Donald Trump is looking to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day back in the White House, according to three people familiar with the president-elect’s plan, even though no companies are trying to build it anymore. Trump believes declaring the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project back on the table would drive the pro-oil message he delivered in his campaign, said people involved in the transition team discussions about the idea. Trump also wants...

White House and congressional leaders are eyeing several responses to protect U.S. consumers, ranging from an effort to wrest market control away from OPEC, limiting U.S. companies’ energy exports, and easing sanctions on unfriendly oil-producing nations — each of which carries serious potential downsides for American interests. For now, the White House is pledging to work with Congress on a bill to allow the U.S. to sue oil cartels for antitrust violations... The so-called NOPEC bill — No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels — would change antitrust laws to allow the Justice Department to sue nations that restrain trade in...