WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),
a company that hopes to build a $7 billion pipeline to take
crude from Canada’s oil sands to Texas, has underestimated the
number and volume of leaks that could occur on the duct and
hurt water supplies, an analysis released on Monday said.

The independent analysis by a water resources engineer at
the University of Nebraska was released by the environmental
group Friends of the Earth, which has helped mount a fierce
campaign hoping to convince the Obama administration to turn
down the pipeline in a decision expected later this year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. environmental regulators finalized a rule on Thursday to slash air pollution from coal-fired power plants in 27 states east of the Rocky Mountains that result in unhealthy levels of smog and soot.

The Environmental Protection Agency measure, known as the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, will add costs for some power generators, but should cut health care bills for Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. environmental regulators finalized a rule on Thursday to slash air pollution from coal-fired power plants in 28 states east of the Rocky Mountains.

The Environmental Protection Agency measure, known as the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, will add costs for some coal-fired power plants, but should cut healthcare bills for Americans as polluting emissions that flow across state lines are cut dramatically.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three senators have reached a deal to repeal the $6 billion per year ethanol tax credit by the end of July, an agreement that must still be passed by Congress, Senator Dianne Feinstein said.

The loss of the subsidy could add extra costs for refiners like Valero Energy Corp and Marathon Oil Corp but is unlikely to reduce demand for corn because government mandates require increasing amounts of the corn-based fuel until 2015.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three U.S. senators working on a framework to replace the $6 billion a year ethanol tax credit with far less costly incentives could strike a deal as soon as Thursday, Senate and industry sources said.

The agreement would be a significant step toward reforms for ethanol subsidies, but would offer some assistance to the ethanol industry as it loses the lucrative benefit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. senator from Montana asked Exxon Mobil Corp on Tuesday for details about the pipeline that ruptured over the weekend spilling about 1,000 barrels of oil into the rain-swollen Yellowstone River.

“I’m calling on Exxon Mobil to answer some tough questions so we can find out how this accident happened and what needs to be done to make sure something like this it never happens again,” Max Baucus said in a letter to Rex Tillerson, the chairman and CEO of Exxon.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Willie Soon, a U.S. climate change skeptic who has also discounted the health risks of mercury emissions from coal, has received more than $1 million in funding in recent years from large energy companies and an oil industry group, according to Greenpeace.

Soon, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has also gotten funding from scientific sources including NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But starting early in the last decade, Soon began receiving more funding from the energy companies, Greenpeace reported.

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) – Willie Soon, a U.S. climate
change skeptic who has also discounted the health risks of
mercury emissions from coal, has received more than $1 million
in funding in recent years from large energy companies and an
oil industry group, according to Greenpeace.

Soon, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, has also gotten funding from scientific
sources including NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. But starting early in the last decade, Soon began
receiving more funding from the energy companies, Greenpeace
reported.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took withering fire from the oil industry and Republicans for agreeing to release the nation’s emergency oil supplies, a decision that senior officials said was prompted by the need to prop up the ailing economy.

Critics blasted the release of 30 million barrels of oil — half of a global injection coordinated by the International Energy Agency — as an ill-timed misuse of reserves at a time when U.S. supplies are relatively high, despite the loss of Libya’s exports for the past three months.

PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Western nations agreed to release oil from emergency stockpiles for the third time in history, sending oil prices tumbling and providing some support to a faltering global economy.

The surprise move was a shot at the oil-producing cartel OPEC, which failed to raise production at a meeting on June 8, and was aimed at replacing supply lost from Libya. The IEA said it will release 60 million barrels over the next month, half coming from the biggest oil consumer, the United States.