** About half of U.S. oil pipeline space is sitting unused, heating up competition for barrels in higher-output areas like the Permian Basin in Texas. Reuters reports that overall U.S. pipeline capacity utilization is at around 50%, compared with a range of 60% to 70% headed into early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to …
Category: EPA
Other energy headlines for Thursday
** Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday that the Biden administration will not ban crude oil exports, despite a push from some Democrats to do so. Speaking before the National Petroleum Council – an advisory board made up of oil industry figures – Granholm said, “We are not considering reinstating the ban on exports.” ** Construction has started on a roughly …
Defend the Blend Act introduced by ethanol supporting Senators
Republican and Democratic Senators from biofuel states have introduced legislation to fight the EPA in its plan to retroactively lower 2020 biofuel blending targets. They call it the Defend the Blend Act and it was introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and cosponsored by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), would prohibit lowering the minimum …
Wednesday’s other energy news headlines
** The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris rolled out a plan on Monday for building out an electric vehicle charging network. A fact sheet the White House released on the plan relies heavily on the bipartisan infrastructure law and existing actions it has taken, but there are some new announcements as well. ** Toyota Motor Corp …
Other energy headlines for Tuesday
** The Biden administration is set to release a federal strategy this week to implement an ambitious plan to build 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles across the country and ultimately transform the U.S. auto industry. ** California’s 26-year-old program to get more people to put solar panels on their homes has been wildly successful, but …
Other energy news headlines for Monday
** The Biden administration has ordered U.S. government agencies to immediately stop financing new carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects overseas and prioritize global collaborations to deploy clean energy technology, according to U.S. diplomatic cables. ** South Dakota utility regulators gave the go-ahead for NorthWestern Energy to partner with BrightMark Full Circle RNG to develop the state’s first renewable natural gas …
Energy news headlines on Thursday
** The Biden administration has issued more permits for oil and gas drilling on public land per month than the Trump administration did in its first three years, according to a new analysis of federal data. The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved an average of 333 drilling permits …
EPA’s latest move for ethanol blending requirements
The Biden administration moved this week to put up another roadblock to small refinery operators such as the Wynnewood Refinery in Oklahoma to obtain exemptions from the EPA’s annual production requirements for ethanol and other biofuels. The Biden administration lowered the requirements to account for reduced demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic …
$15 million fine over North Dakota spill
A North Dakota federal judge this week fined Summit Midstream $15 million over a discharge of 29 million gallons of produced water in 2014. The action by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor in Williston, North Dakota also included a three-year period of probation for the midstream company. It came after Summit Midstream …
Wednesday energy news headlines
** Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller told the World Petroleum Congress this week in Houston that oil, gas underinvestment is bringing about period of market scarcity. ** Despite the company’s good year so far, Exxon’s coming pay raises for employees will come in below inflation, new reports suggest. Salaries are going to rise about 3.6% for employees who deserve …