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Metro Vancouver' port authority has approved construction of a controversial coal-shipping facility in a major marine terminal. Fraser Surrey Docks has been given a permit by Port Metro Vancouver to build the facility along the Fraser River that will handle four million metric tonnes of coal each year. Environmentalists, many residents and the region's medical health officers have expressed concerns about the effect on air quality and potential harm to the surrounding environment. Peter Xotta, of Port Metro Vancouver, says the decision was not taken lightly but a comprehensive review found there were no unacceptable risks from the development. Fraser...

Fellow Conservatives: Senate Democrats plan to bring up legislation later this month that will give new life to a corporate welfare program called the Export-Import Bank. The Ex-Im Bank is a loan guarantee program that forces American taxpayers to subsidize foreign companies. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports the bank will cost taxpayers $2 billion. That’s two BILLION dollars of your money being spent to pick winners and losers. It's cronyism at its worst. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Ex-Im Bank "removed four officials in recent months amid investigations into allegations of gifts and kickbacks, as well as...

NEW YORK (AP) — Companies are taking advantage of new ways to export oil from the U.S. despite government restrictions, and in the process helping the U.S. become an ever bigger exporter of petroleum on the world stage. The Obama Administration has opened the door to more exports — without changing policy — by allowing some light oils to be defined as petroleum products like gasoline or diesel, which are not subject to export restrictions. Although U.S. production has boomed in recent years, the nation still consumes far more crude oil than it produces and remains heavily dependent on imports....

A 7-year-old Basalt girl accidentally ingested candy that was infused with edible marijuana Sunday and was taken to Valley View Hospital for treatment, according to police. The girl’s mother is a maid at an Aspen hotel where there is a policy that food and beverages left behind in rooms can be taken home by the cleaning staff, according to Basalt Police Chief Greg Knott. The woman found a bag of nuts that also contained a chocolate ball the size of a large marble, he said.

The Obama administration has cleared the way for two energy companies to sell an ultralight variety of oil overseas after minimally processing it, a decision that tests the limits of a long-standing ban on exporting U.S. crude. The move, which came in private classification orders issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, effectively confirms that hydrocarbon known as condensate qualifies as a petroleum product once it has been processed in a distillation tower, and therefore is not barred by the 39-year-old ban on crude exports. Unlike unprocessed crude, companies can freely sell gasoline, diesel and other petroleum...

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized Cameron LNG LLC’s plan to build and operate facilities to liquefy and export natural gas from its existing LNG import terminal in Hackberry, La. FERC also approved Cameron Interstate Pipeline LLC’s application to construct and operate pipeline and compression facilities in Cameron, Calcasieu, and Beauregard Parishes to supply the Cameron LNG facility with domestically-produced gas. Sempra Energy Corp. owns the project. The June 19 actions marked the second time FERC has approved an LNG export facility. It approved the Sabine Pass liquefaction project in April 2012, which is under construction. Sabine Pass’s application to...

Using data from the CIA Factbook, we labeled every country in the world by its highest valued export, a.k.a. the commodity that makes the country the most money in the global market. Click on any of the maps below to see an enlarged version. Unsurprisingly, much of the world runs on oil, particularly the Middle East and Central Asia. Europe is the world's workshop, where most of the machinery and motor vehicles are made, from optical instruments to BMWs. Latin America brings a blend of food products and oil to the trading table. Asia is the world's manufacturing center, where...

Houston is on the verge of a two-pronged “export boom” that could help create more than 55,000 new energy sector jobs, according to a study scheduled for release Tuesday. The overhaul in Mexico’s energy sector, along with the growth of liquefied natural gas and chemical plants, will mean new jobs in Houston as companies ship more products abroad. “The oil and gas industry always like to talk about what’s the next frontier,” said Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership, which produced the report. “Mexico is the next frontier. Chemicals is the next frontier.” Mexico’s energy...

A liquefied natural gas facility in southern Maryland is generating intense criticism from environmental groups, in a fight that echoes the protracted battle over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Energy company Dominion Resources is hoping to invest up to $3.8 billion to upgrade the Cove Point LNG facility as an export terminal. If successful, it could become the East Coast's chief LNG export facility, sending billions of cubic feet of natural gas to Japan, India, and elsewhere. Dominion stresses that the project would have a huge economic impact close to home as well. "The local area of Calvert County gets...

Right on cue, as it becomes obvious that Europe needs to be less dependent on Russian gas and oil, environmental groups here in the US have begun stepping up presure on President Obama to reject building the infrastructure necessary to help realize that strategic need. A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the administration to reject permits that would build Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. Environmental groups called on President Obama Tuesday to reject pending applications to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, citing the negative impacts from natural gas throughout its life cycle.The pressure from green...

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on Freeport LNG’s Phase II modification and liquefaction projects. FERC concluded that “construction and operation of the projects would result in adverse impacts on certain resources and nearby communities.” FERC said, “We have identified that there would be significant and unavoidable impacts on residents of the town of Quintana due to construction noise and construction traffic if the projects are approved by the commission.” The commission added, “However, other adverse impacts would be reduced to less-than-significant levels with the implementation of Freeport LNG’s mitigation measures and...

Fracking is a strategic weapon in the US arsenal that, instead of costing billions of dollars, actually generates tax revenues and prosperity. It should be obvious that rapid expansion of gas production and gas export terminals is an imperative for the economy and national security. It already is obvious to counties in Europe that face Russian blackmail over their natural gas supplies. Jonathan Broder reports in Roll Call: Over the past few weeks, ambassadors from Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltic states and Greece have met with Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan...

In light of the recent crisis instigated by Russia, lawmakers have lately been pushing the Obama administration to expedite the more than twenty outstanding applications from energy companies for permission to export more natural gas into the world market — and a handful of central European countries are decidedly for it. They have recently developed infrastructure advancements that have made it possible for gas that normally flows through Ukraine to the EU to also flow in the other direction, meaning that the EU can and in fact has been shipping gas to the Ukraine, and these ambassadors are hoping that...

A prescient House Energy and Commerce Committee report released last month, just in time for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, suggested that "by becoming a natural gas exporter, the U.S. can supplant the influence of other exporters like Russia and Iran while strengthening ties with our allies and trading partners around the world." President Obama does not want to use military force to counteract Russia. His 2015 Budget, due out this week, will shrink the military still further. But he has another weapon at his disposal, liquid natural gas exports. Congress and the president should without delay pass laws to make...

When the Arab oil embargo of 1973 shocked the U.S. into long gas lines and rationing, Congress approved what was a no-brainer at the time -- a ban on exporting crude oil produced at home. But today, with domestic oil production booming, some are questioning whether that ban should stay in place. The new concern is that the U.S. has more oil than its refineries can handle. “This ban threatens record-breaking U.S. oil production and American jobs by creating inefficiencies, gluts and distortions,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, recently testified at a congressional hearing. Murkowski has sent a letter to the...

Reports from the trickle of western visitors to North Korea consistently indicate that cannabis is actually widely tolerated in the Hermit Kingdom- in fact, it's not even considered a drug there. Travelers speak of pot growing wildly by the side of the road, sold, rolled, and smoked openly- right in the heart of the most repressive Stalinist regime on Earth... A recent visitor to the capitol Pyongyang said he went and purchased a substantial 'shopping bag' of the wacky tabacky at an open-stall vegetable market (at a rock-bottom price), no problem. There is simply exists no taboo around pot smoking in the DPRK- foreign businessmen say...

TEL AVIV — Israel has blocked exports of unmanned aerial vehicles for foreign militaries. Industry sources said the Israeli Defense Ministry vetoed requests by major companies for UAV exports. They said the proposed exports stemmed from political pressure by the United States. Israel’s business daily Globes said the UAV deals affected such producers as the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems and Aeronautics Defense. Globes said the restrictions imposed by the Defense Ministry was dampening UAV and other military exports.

Coal exports from the United States in March 2013 totaled 13.6 million short tons, nearly 0.9 million short tons above the previous monthly export peak in June 2012. EIA is projecting a third straight year of more than 100 million short tons of coal exports in 2013, following annual exports in 2011 of 107.3 million short tons and record annual exports in 2012 of 125.7 million short tons. Increased Asian demand for coal contributed to the record level of coal exports from the United States in March. Of the record export tonnage, 6.3 million short tons were steam coal and...

There are few, if any, US energy policy decisions that are being more fiercely debated than the fate of liquefied natural gas exports. With a recent, high-profile approval from the Department of Energy, ramped up rhetoric and more decisions looming, it might be a good time to get up to speed on the LNG export issue. What’s this about? If you’ve followed the LNG export fight just a little, you’ve probably heard that, thanks to the shale gas revolution, the US has abandoned its plans to import gas from foreign markets and is now looking to aggressively export it. Ample...

The head of the International Energy Agency on Tuesday urged the United States to decide quickly to allow crude exports, or the industry will find ways to get around restrictions. The Export Administration Act of 1979 banned the sale of U.S. crude abroad, except to Canada and Mexico, but the shale energy boom has since turned the North American energy market upside down in just a few years. U.S. oil production is now rising steeply, having been falling for decades, prompting some to say shipments abroad should be considered. "The answers have to be given by the U.S. government. I...