Leak won't affect next Keystone ruling
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Discovery of a 210,000-gallon oil leak from the Keystone pipeline would seem to be poor timing four days before regulators in Nebraska decide whether to allow a major expansion of the system, but officials say state law does not allow pipeline safety to be a factor in their decision.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission is scheduled to rule Monday if a Keystone XL expansion pipeline proposed by TransCanada Corp. can cross the state. The commission's decision is the last major regulatory hurdle for a project that has faced numerous local, state and federal reviews and lawsuits since it was announced in 2008. A state law passed in 2011 prevents the commission from factoring pipeline safety or the possibility of leaks into its decisions.
The Nebraska vote Monday will be on a proposed route for Keystone XL, an expansion that also would be operated by TransCanada.
Keystone operator TransCanada Corp. shut down the existing pipeline early Thursday morning, and workers were testing to determine the cause of the spill on agricultural land in Marshall County, S.D.
-- The Associated Press
Study links ethanol, carbon emissions
MADISON, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows that the shift of more than 7 million acres into cropland led to huge releases of carbon emissions into the atmosphere after a 2007 federal law mandated ethanol in gasoline.
The increased carbon emissions are equivalent to 20 million new cars driving down American roads every year, according to the researchers' estimates in the study.
The findings show big changes in land use across the Midwest and other parts of the United States between 2008 and 2012. That coincided with a change in federal law that required blending ethanol from crops like corn and soybeans into gasoline. While adding ethanol means burning fewer fossil fuels, the study found that the benefits were lost as even larger amounts of carbon held in the soil were released into the atmosphere in newly cultivated farm fields.
The federal Energy Information Agency reported that 10 percent of 143 billion gallons of gasoline came from ethanol in 2016.
-- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
U.S. gas demand sets October record
WASHINGTON -- American drivers have taken gasoline consumption to a new high as the U.S. economy strengthens and adds jobs.
Demand for the motor fuel rose to the highest level on record for the month of October, the American Petroleum Institute said in a monthly report Friday. Consumption of distillate fuel, however, declined.
Total deliveries of petroleum products, a measure of demand, rose to 19.9 million barrels a day, the institute said. That's 1.1 percent higher than a year ago. Gasoline deliveries rose 2.7 percent to 9.3 million barrels a day. Demand for distillate fell 3.1 percent to the lowest level for the month since 2011.
In addition to a strengthening economy, it helps that gasoline prices dropped. The nationwide average price for a gallon at the pump was $2.556 on Friday, after touching $2.674 in September, the highest level this year, according to data from Heathrow, Fla.-based AAA, a national federation of motor clubs.
-- Bloomberg News
GE chief will shrink 18-member board
BOSTON -- General Electric Co. is narrowing its focus around several key markets, cutting costs and slashing the dividend. With all that shrinking going on, it's only natural that the board would follow suit.
John Flannery, GE's new chairman and chief executive officer, plans to reduce the size of the 18-member board by a third. The average is 11 members. The members of the smaller slate, which will include three new directors and nine returnees, will be proposed at the April 2018 shareholder meeting.
The change is part of a broader effort to overhaul the company and stem the biggest stock decline on the Dow Jones industrial average this year. With problems ranging from poor cash flow to flagging power markets, GE has faced criticism from investors and analysts over management and board oversight.
GE is currently tied for second among all S&P 500 members in terms of board size, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
-- Bloomberg News
Texans report gains in oil employment
AMARILLO, Texas -- Hiring in Texas oil and gas fields is rising sharply as the industry steadily recovers from its most recent downturn.
The number of workers exploring for oil and gas in Texas hit more than 222,000 in September, nearly 31,000 more than a year ago, according to the Texas Petroleum Index, a measure of oil and gas drilling activity. It was the 10th straight month that employment has improved, the report said.
"After a two-year oil bloodbath where prices dropped 80 percent, rig count was down 75 percent, drilling permits were down 70 percent and 300,000 plus jobs were lost, this is a much brighter day," said Karr Ingham, an Amarillo, Texas-based economist who compiles the report for the Texas Alliance of Energy producers.
"It is a very solid recovery at this point," Ingham said. "We're adding jobs back and steadily counting."
-- Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Storms cost Puerto Rico 31,600 jobs
WASHINGTON -- Puerto Rico employers reduced payrolls by tens of thousands of workers in October after Hurricane Maria devastated the island and knocked out power for weeks to most of the territory, Labor Department figures showed Friday.
The drop in employment totaled 31,600 people, or 3.6 percent, according to monthly figures. The report provides the most complete look at Maria's impact on Puerto Rico's job market, after storm damage prevented the collection of September figures that would have normally been released last month. The Labor Department said response rates from Puerto Rico employers for October were below average.
The dire situation in Puerto Rico -- more than half of the island remains without power, about two months after the storm -- is spurring an exodus to the mainland U.S. The head of the financial oversight board for the territory said earlier this month that 5 percent of the population, or 170,000 people, may leave by the end of the year.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 11/18/2017