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Islamist extremists who have flocked to Syria to fight with groups linked to al-Qaeda pose a direct threat to Britain because they will return to plot attacks at home, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary has said. Mr Hague said there was now “uncontested space” in Syria where Islamist groups were free to establish training camps that would equip and train foreign fighters, including British extremists. In a letter to MPs, Mr Hague said his officials had concluded some of those trained would threaten British national security on their return. “This is particularly concerning as we assess some of the individuals...

NORMAN, Okla., April 26 (UPI) -- The lack of a vibrant oil sector in Syria is part of the reason there are so many refugees in the region, Syrian expert Joshua Landis said. "Oil is the only thing that Syria has going for it," Landis, a Syrian expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma, told Bloomberg News. "Farming has collapsed and that is why we are seeing this outflow of refugees. They are starving. They don't have the basics to sustain them." European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva said there are 1.3 million refugees due...

MILFORD — Milford Beach will remain open this summer after all, after a campaign waged by community activists, business owners, and elected officials to stop the closure set off by across-the-board spending cuts known as the federal sequester. John Donahue, superintendent of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area, said he had to close Milford Beach to trim his budget. This ruffled many feathers in Pike County, as Milford Beach is a big draw for both residents and visitors alike during the summer. The closing would cost businesses in Milford and the surrounding area a lot of money in an...

Energy: As the EPA snipes at the State Department's approval, Canada's natural resource minister says failure to approve the pipeline would seriously jeopardize our energy relationship and do nothing to save the earth. Joe Oliver, not amused by the continued delays in perhaps the most shovel-ready project since the pyramids, said Wednesday that rejection by the U.S. of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline "would represent a serious reversal in our long-standing energy relationship." This critical energy infrastructure project is also perhaps the most studied and approved. After a reroute at the behest of environmentalists allegedly concerned about the sensitive Ogallala...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States should consider military action to curb Syrian chemical weapons after Washington went public with suspicions they have been used in the country's civil war, Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Friday. The challenge by Zev Elkin, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscored tension this week over the allies' assessments on Syria, as well as longer-running disputes about how aggressively to confront Iran's nuclear program. The White House said on Thursday the Syrian government had probably employed chemical arms on a small scale against rebels. The disclosure created a bind for President Barack...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would "take the crisis to another level", but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border. The White House said on Thursday Assad's government had probably used chemical arms on a small scale, but that President Barack Obama needed proof before he would act. "We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. They are very alarming," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent...

---------------SIP--------------------------------------- . . .Perhaps a quick refresher on the benefits of Keystone are in order. First, notwithstanding the development of alternative energy sources, the world is going to continue to need oil; Oliver, quoting the International Energy Agency, says that global energy demand is expected to grow by at least 35 percent over the next 20 years. The notion, pushed by environmentalists, that blocking the oil sands will spur green energy is delusion. Second, energy independence is a long-sought national goal. We would no longer need OPEC, a cartel of countries with values, in many cases, antithetical to ours. Third,...

The powerful U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has once again rebuked the State Department over its positive environmental assessment of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. In a lengthy, highly technical letter sent Monday to the top State Department officials overseeing the pipeline permit process, the EPA raises serious concerns about the project's carbon footprint and criticizes the department's draft analysis. It urges the State Department to rethink its finding that the controversial pipeline would not significantly spur production of Alberta's carbon-intensive oilsands or boost greenhouse gas emissions. The letter, signed by EPA official Cynthia Giles, said the State assessment included "insufficient...

As President Obama weighs the fate of the Keystone pipeline, a similar project connecting Canada’s oil sands to the West Coast is quietly moving forward, little noticed in the United States. A 60-year-old pipeline already pumps oil from northern Alberta to Vancouver’s busy harbor for shipment to Asia or California. Now the owner, Kinder Morgan Canada, wants to nearly triple the Trans Mountain Pipeline’s capacity, making it even bigger than Keystone. And unlike Keystone, Trans Mountain’s proposed $5.4 billion expansion doesn’t need the approval of the U.S. government. Canadian authorities will have the final say. The project would give Canada’s...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the "methods and principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey's deputy prime minister said. Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident, which also wounded seven Israeli soldiers, increased tensions between the once close allies and led to...

Do you suppose the eco-trendy crowd really, carefully thought this one through before jumping on the self-righteously outraged bandwagon? I have some pretty severe doubts on the matter, but they're in this thing, and they're certainly not going to back down now that they've invested so much time, money, and media coverage to the issue --- even though killing the Keystone XL pipeline will not prevent oil companies from developing Canada's tar sands even a little bit. Stopping their product from moving through pipelines simply means that they’ll have to seek other markets, i.e. shipping it to China via tankers,...

Mexico’s president says a Japanese company has been tapped to build a pipeline to import U.S. natural gas through Arizona. President Enrique Pena Nieto is visiting Japan, where he made the announcement about the $460 million project Tuesday. Japan’s Mitsui Corporation will build the pipeline, which will run from Tucson to the Mexican border.

In case you had any doubts, two reports released this week confirm that the oil and gas economy in Texas is still hot. Drilling permits issued in January and February were up 10 percent over the same period in 2012, according to economist Karr Ingham, who created the Texas Petro Index. The number of permits issued in February actually slipped by about 3 percent over 2012 numbers, Ingham noted. But the Railroad Commission issued 3,722 permits during the first two months of the year, “the strongest start to a year in the entire history of the TPI,” he said. Karr...

Mid-Continent Crude Oil Markets Continue to Adjust to Rapid Rise in Bakken Production The differential between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and North Dakota's Bakken crudes continues to fluctuate, reflecting both production growth and changes in oil transportation capacity. Bakken crude sold at a $25-per-barrel discount to WTI in early 2012 and rose to a $5-per-barrel premium last September, before again being discounted below WTI this winter. So far this year, the gap between Bakken and WTI prices has narrowed, and once again, the Bakken price has risen above the WTI price, albeit modestly (Figure 1). West Texas Intermediate prices are...

It’s one thing for citizens to have a healthy debate about a controversial issue affecting a jurisdiction — but it’s another entirely to take the discussion outside those boundaries. That’s exactly what Thomas Homer-Dixon did with his editorial page piece that appeared in the New York Times on Monday, excoriating the oilsands and suggesting it would be good for Canada if President Barack Obama does not allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Waterloo University professor who is at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School for International Affairs makes...

After focusing for years on adding heat to the chilly contents of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, officials are planning to study a new approach to boosting line performance — decreasing the amount of water inside. With North Slope oil production in a 25-year-long decline, the pipeline is becoming more vulnerable to problems as the flow of crude decreases. A barrel of oil took just four days to travel the length of the 800-mile line in 1988, but now takes 18 days. Because of the slower flow rate, the temperature of oil can sometimes dip down to 32 degrees during its...

NEW YORK - Exxon Mobil was working to clean up thousands of barrels of oil in Mayflower, Arkansas, after a pipeline carrying heavy Canadian crude ruptured, a major spill likely to stoke debate over transporting Canada’s oil to the United States. Exxon shut the Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to Nederland, Texas, after the leak was discovered on Friday afternoon, the company said in a statement. Exxon, hit with a $1.7 million fine by regulators this week over a 2011 spill in the Yellowstone River, said a...

New natural gas pipeline construction sagged in 2012 to the lowest level since 1997, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Just 367 new miles of natural gas pipelines were added last year, compared with more than 2,000 miles added in 2011. Although natural gas prices have fallen in recent years, the drop in building of pipelines appears to be a surprise, since large gas production is expected for decades at locations throughout the nation. The figure also seemed to contradict a 2011 study by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, which projected rapid natural gas pipeline growth through...

The city of Valdez plans to spend up to $900,000 to try to defeat a bill aimed at advancing an in-state natural gas pipeline project. City manager John Hozey said a large-scale line capable of feeding overseas exports makes more sense for Alaska. Valdez has hoped to be the terminus for a major line, when and if one gets built, but Hozey said the PR campaign - including ads and a website - is geared at supporting what Valdez believes to be the better project. The city is using money it has won in challenges over taxation of the trans-Alaska...

Senate Democrats finally released their first budget plan in four years this month: It offers nearly $1 trillion in new taxes, an end to sequester budget savings, and almost no new spending restraint. Despite the failure of the 2009 stimulus package, Democrats also want an extra $100 billion to create jobs on infrastructure projects, few of which would be “shovel-ready” enough to hire workers anytime soon. President Obama won’t release his own budget till April, but he has a golden opportunity to improve on the Senate budget and create real jobs. All he has to do is end his four-year...