WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) – A Democratic U.S. lawmaker
called on federal regulatory authorities to ensure
“discriminatory practices” were not blocking construction of new
pipelines to transport oil from the booming oil play of North
Dakota.

“Currently, only one pipeline runs eastward across North
Dakota to Minnesota, and there is a critical need for additional
pipeline capacity to support oil production in this region,”
Minnesota Representative Collin Peterson wrote in a letter to
Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Oppressive heat and a worsening drought in the U.S. Midwest pushed grain prices near or past records on Monday as crops wilted, cities baked and concerns grew about food and fuel price inflation in the world’s top food exporter.

Soybean prices at the Chicago Board of Trade set a record high and corn closed near a record as millions of acres of crops seared in triple-digit heat in the Corn Belt. Corn fields have been plowed up in many locations for lack of rain. Now soybeans, which develop later than corn, are in the bull’s eye.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, July 18 (Reuters) – Oppressive heat and
a worsening drought in the U.S. Midwest pushed grain prices near
or past records on Monday as crops wilted, cities baked and
concerns grew about food and fuel price inflation in the world’s
top food exporter.

Soybean prices at the Chicago Board of Trade set a record
high and corn closed near a record as millions of acres of crops
seared in triple-digit heat in the Corn Belt. Corn fields have
been plowed up in many locations for lack of rain. Now soybeans,
which develop later than corn, are in the bull’s eye.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he was on his knees every day, praying for rain in the Midwest, where a prolonged drought is withering crops in the fields and will likely push up food prices later this year and next.

Vilsack urged Congress to work with the Obama Administration to improve aid to farmers who are struggling with a crop that will be sharply reduced by searing heat and a lack of rain, which are affecting 61 percent of the U.S. land mass.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) – U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack said he was on his knees every day, praying for rain
in the Midwest, where a prolonged drought is withering crops in
the fields and will likely push up food prices later this year
and next.

Vilsack urged Congress to work with the Obama Administration
to improve aid to farmers who are struggling with a crop that
will be sharply reduced by searing heat and a lack of rain,
which are affecting 61 percent of the U.S. land mass.

WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) – Enbridge’s massive oil
pipeline spill in Michigan in 2010 was caused by a complete
breakdown of company safety measures, while its employees
performed like “Keystone Kops” trying to contain it, the
National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.

The rupture of Enbridge’s pipeline spilled more than 20,000
barrels of heavy crude into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in July,
2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. oil companies will be allowed to drill in more areas of the Gulf of Mexico but won only limited access to the Arctic under the final version of the Obama Administration’s five year drilling plan that was slammed by industry and some environmentalists.

The 2012-2017 plan calls for three potential lease sales in areas offshore Alaska but the auctions would not be held until the final years of the plan because of environmental concerns about operating in the Arctic.

WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – The Obama Administration
will release its final, five-year blueprint for offshore
drilling o n T hursday and is expected to offer a go-slow approach
to Arctic drilling and keep restricting rigs from operating off
the east and west coasts of the country.

The drilling plan is likely to draw criticism from
Republicans on the campaign trail as too restrictive, while
sparking concern from environmentalists that drilling off Alaska
is too risky.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States painted a rosier picture than expected for global grain stocks and the U.S. winter wheat crop on Thursday, sending prices in a freefall toward recent-year lows.

The U.S. Agriculture Department projected that, after a larger-than-expected harvest last year, corn and soybean stocks will be much higher at the end of this marketing year than traders had predicted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama had a good week. While still basking from the successful hit on America’s number one enemy, the administration also enjoyed watching oil prices deflate in one of the biggest commodity declines ever.

High oil prices, all those headlines about the “pain at the pump,” had begun to eat away at Obama’s presidency, or at least his campaign. And the Republicans were having a field day, saying the Obama administration was driving up oil prices because of its fussy attention on renewable fuel while wringing its hands over that oil spill in the Gulf (so, 2010 y’know).