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The “fair and equitable” piece is where the Obama administration is most vulnerable, said David Gantz, a trade law professor at the University of Arizona College of Law. “The issue becomes, if there is a very detailed procedure for approval or disapproval of pipelines, whether the U.S. followed those procedures or whether it went beyond the criteria or procedures,” Gantz said. “I would say the U.S. is pretty vulnerable on that one issue,” he said, “in part because the White House staff and others essentially said, ‘we know we’re doing this politically and to make a statement,’ but the regulations...

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump escalated his criticism of GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) here in Iowa Saturday, painting him as a political follower beholden to pro-oil special interests and the donor class. Trump’s strategy: to raise further questions about Cruz’s stance on ethanol— an important industry for voters in the Hawkeye State — in the final weeks before the Feb. 1 caucuses. Cruz has faced renewed scrutiny over his opposition to the 2005 Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires gasoline to be blended with amounts of corn ethanol and is set to expire in 2022. “As...

The ethanol mandate, known formally as the Renewable Fuel Standard or RFS, is an object lesson in misguided government policy surviving long after its original rationales have been destroyed. The national security rationale was that oil was scarce, but now we're the world's leading oil producer and have begun exporting crude. The environmental rationale was that ethanol would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but since a landmark study was published in Nature in 2008 we've known: "there's little doubt that ethanol is making global warming worse." Even the jobs rationale fails. Per the Congressional Budget Office: "roughly the same amount of...

It was broadly reported yesterday that Ted Cruz had "flipped" on the question of ethanol mandates. Pretty much immediately, Cruz's critics suggested a) that this shift in position must mean that he is worried about his position in Iowa, and b) that his "steadfast conservative" claim was being exposed as a charade. I was among those who took the claim that Cruz has shifted his position at face value. The problem with that? It's not quite true. Cruz has changed his mind on ethanol in the past. But he did so in 2014, in which year he moved from supporting...

With some hasty blogging--and exacerbated by an Iowan's mistaken assertion about the ethanol mandate, Ted Cruz's shrewd answering, and the ethanol lobby's odd response--I contributed to some confusion about Ted Cruz's views on the ethanol mandate. (For the sake of candor, my original [probably misleading] post is at the bottom of this article.) Sen. Ted Cruz in 2013 co-sponsored the "Renewable Fuel Standard Repeal Act," which would immediately repeal the ethanol mandate. In 2014, he introduced a broad energy bill that would wind down the mandate over five years, slashing the federally mandated volume of renewable fuels (including corn ethanol)...

Donald Trump says that Ted Cruz has flip-flopped on the ethanol mandate, formerly wanting it abolished immediately and now wanting it abolished after a five-year phase-out. This is hardly a major change of position, but Trump is right that Cruz changed his position on ethanol in 2014 from totally ending the mandate to a gradual phase-out. But 2014 was so long ago that in 2014, Donald Trump was a liberal Democrat. If Donald Trump wants to catalog flip-flops, he should start with these: 1) Trump has said that the economy "does better under the Democrats than Republicans." 2) He has...

On this week's show Jacki speaks with Kathleen Hartnett White of the Texas Public Policy Foundation about her new book, Fueling Freedom, laying out the economic and ethical case for fossil fuels. She also weighs in on the President's job-killing "Clean Power Plan." Jacki also talks with Jim Amos, Chairman of Proctor & Gamble's Franchising Division, about why the International Franchise Association opposes the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The world's largest ethylene production complex, the Jam Petrochemical Plant, has been opened in the southern Iranian city of Asalouyeh. The complex will boast of an annual production of 1,321,000 tons of ethylene, which is widely used in industry and medicine, IRNA reported. The Jam Petrochemical Plant will increase its production to 4.2 million tons within the next few years. The complex was inaugurated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was accompanied by Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari, on Sunday in his visit to the port city of Asalouyeh -- home to Iran's giant South Pars gas field in the Persian...

Venezuela has removed Exxon Mobil Corp. from a multi-billion-dollar petrochemicals project amid wider differences with President Hugo Chavez's nationalist oil policies. Exxon planned to team up with Pequiven, the petrochemicals division of state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, to spend a combined $3 billion on a project to produce 1 million metric tons a year of ethylene and derivatives. "On Jan. 20, Pequiven informed ExxonMobil Chemical that Pequiven would not be able to complete Jose Petrochemical Project feasibility study under the terms and conditions agreed in August 2004," Exxon said in a statement on Tuesday. "We have...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The state-owned oil companies of Brazil and Bolivia are expected to clinch a deal soon to build a $1.5 billion petrochemical complex along their border, a top Bolivian official said. The plant would be built in the city of Puerto Suarez next to the Brazilian border in an area known as the Pantanal, the world‘s largest marshlands, said Andres Soliz, Bolivia‘s hydrocarbons minister. Soliz said an official announcement was expected within days. Soliz said the Morales administration also expects to finish renegotiating contracts before June with the multinational companies that have been extracting Bolivian natural gas...

Between January and this month, the cost for filling my car tank has doubled. People ask why. The answer is that years of effort by environmental organizations have finally paid off, placing so many restrictions on this nation’s ability to keep pace with its energy needs, that everyone will now pay more and maybe, in the process, figure out who to blame. You cannot "conserve" energy by simply not using it or using less. The ultimate "conservation" would be to stop mining coal and stop drilling for oil and natural gas. The modern world runs on these sources of energy....

A quiet terrorist victory, one which has completely escaped the notice of the mainstream press, is affecting your life. It has significance in both practical and symbolic terms. In the short run there is little we can do about it. But in the long run the factors propelling the terrorists' triumph contain the seeds of their defeat. Do these names mean anything to you? Stephen LaGuardia, 62, and Philip Coplen, 53, Americans; Michael Hardy, 44, and Michael McGillen, 52, Britons; Anthony Mason, 57, Australian. You might have a vague memory of five Western engineers killed last May in Saudi Arabia....

Tauzin faces five opponents in bid to replace father By DOUG SIMPSON Associated Press writer HOUMA -- Some voters affectionately call him "Little Billy." A political rival calls him simply, "That Boy." Billy Tauzin III's name is as famous as any other in south Louisiana politics, familiar to the oilmen, shrimp fishermen and sugar cane farmers of Cajun towns like Houma and New Iberia. They know Tauzin's father, U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin Jr., a former oil rig worker who won a seat in Congress in 1980, was re-elected 11 times and, as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,...

TEHRAN- (Agencies) -- President Mohammad Khatami here Tuesday said the progress achieved by the country in the petrochemical industry is a source of great honor. He made the remark at a ceremony launching a petrochemical complex project here in western Iran in which he drew attention to the country’s huge supplies of oil and gas which, he said, are a great advantage. Khatami explained that he had high hopes the project will bring remarkable changes in the lives of people in the province. The petrochemical complex, with an expected annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of polyethylene, is to be...

Value of Iran's petrochemicals to hit 26 billion dollars Tehran, Aug 8, IRNA -- The monetary value of Iran's petrochemical products will reach some 26 billion dollars within the next ten years, including dlrs 20 billion worth of saleable commodities. According to the Persian-language daily 'Abrar-e Eqtesadi`, attracting financial resources, increasing the share of foreign and domestic private companies in the whole ownership of petrochemical industry and enhancing the share of private sector by some 50 percent are among programs predicted in petrochemical fields in the next 10 years. According to the 10-year program, including the fourth and fifth economic...