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Voters in California’s 29th State Senate district recalled freshman Democrat Josh Newman in Tuesady’s California primary over his vote for Governor Jerry Brown’s 12-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike, replacing him with Republican Ling Ling Chang and definitively denying Democrats a supermajority in the upper house.

"Louisiana loses a football field of land every 100 minutes." While that phrase has helped bring awareness to the ongoing problem of coastal wetland loss, it's not the state of Louisiana that is really losing land. It is private landowners, companies and individuals, that have lost more than 2,000 square miles of coastal marsh over the past century. That process is financially benefiting the state under an old law that grants the state government the rights to oil and gas deep below navigable waters, including coastlines where erosion has converted land to water. The more land private landowners lose to...

Amid President Donald Trump’s push for American energy independence and thrust to wean Europe off of geopolitically charged Russian gas -- several European states, particularly Germany, have accused the president of playing energy geopolitics, cloaking American concern for European energy security under the guise and to the benefit of U.S. producers. Now, Trump and U.S. LNG exporters will have an even harder time convincing key EU members to offset overreliance on Russian piped gas. Last week, Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer, and the European Commission resolved a seven-year anti-trust dispute after the Russian state-controlled energy giant agreed to change...

In April, Beijing was given a list of goods that China buys in various countries that can be replaced by American ones. The list includes oil, oil products, liquefied natural gas, beef, poultry and soybeans. Washington is pressuring Beijing by lobbying long-term contracts for the supply of energy resources and agricultural products to China in order to reduce the multi-billion-dollar trade deficit between the countries, according to the Financial Times. Washington also intends to seek the abolition of quotas on US supplies to China. If the parties agree to remove trade barriers, then the expansion of energy supplies, according to...

The Trump administration wants to ease restrictions on oil and gas leasing and other activities across a huge swath of the American West that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird. The move involves conservation plans for greater sage grouse approved in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. Trump has vowed to increase U.S. energy production and open more lands to drilling. Conservation groups critical of Trump’s energy policies warned Wednesday’s proposal could unravel a years-long effort to shore up the bird’s struggling population. Interior Department officials said the revisions to the Obama-era plans were aimed at increasing...

Are Berlin’s close energy ties with Moscow paying off? Data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service shows they might be after Germany paid less for natural gas from the world’s largest exporter than most other buyers. Only the U.K., which produces most of its own gas, had lower import costs among the biggest offtakers, according to the figures obtained by Bloomberg and detailed in the chart below. Chancellor Angela Merkel has worked to strengthen the energy relationship with Russia, bucking U.S. pressure to punish Vladimir Putin’s interference in Syria and elections across the west. Germany has backed projects such as Gazprom...

Scientists using the huge telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano have discovered the world's most obvious space joke. "Uranus smells like farts" is an actual, and correct, headline making the rounds ...

As one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump signed presidential memoranda to revive both the KeystoneXL and Dakota Access pipelines by expediting the environmental review process. The Dakota Access pipeline is now in full operation. TransCanada’s annual report gives us an update on the Keystone XL pipeline.

A filmmaker is planning a documentary about one of the many debated aspects of Pennsylvania's interstate rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. No, it's not whether the NHL's Penguins or Flyers are better. With the Pens up 3 games to 1 in the Stanley Cup playoffs, there doesn't appear to be much debate over that. The rivalry to be explored in the documentary: Sheetz versus Wawa . "The rivalry is not between the stores, the rivalry is really between the fans," said Matthew Fridg, a Pittsburgh-based filmmaker behind the documentary. Fridg hopes to answer the age-old question of which gas station...

"GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler are seeking just one grade of fuel: 95. That would eliminate today's grades, generally 87 octane for regular, 88-90 for midgrade and 91-94 for premium." "In testimony Friday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment subcommittee, Dan Nicholson, General Motors' vice president of global propulsion systems, said making 95 octane the new regular aligns the U.S. with Europe and is one of the most affordable ways to boost fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions."

Five days after the apparent chemical attack on the town of Douma in the Ghouta region near Damascus, Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar is still trying to figure out what could have caused Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to order such an attack, just when he was about to defeat the rebel resistance in Douma without the use of gas. He is certain of one thing, however: The "false flag" theories being offered by various right wing media figures have no possible basis in reality. ..... "But to take chemical weapons and kill hundreds of children from your own side,...

Russia is considering replacing the U.S. dollar in crude oil payments on deals with Turkey and Iran, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said as quoted by RT. According to Novak, “There is a common understanding that we need to move towards the use of national currencies in our settlements. There is a need for this, as well as the wish of the parties. This concerns both Turkey and Iran – we are considering an option of payment in national currencies with them. This requires certain adjustments in the financial, economic and banking sectors.” Iran, under threat of returning U.S. sanctions, two...

"The US state department said it is monitoring the "very disturbing" reports, and that Russia - which is fighting alongside the Syrian government - should be held responsible if deadly chemicals had been used."

Russia's most ambitious energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union - the Power of Siberia - will be its first gas pipeline to head east, opening up a Chinese market worth $400bn amid souring relations with the west. The FT's Henry Foy reports. Filmed and presented by Henry Foy. Produced by Dan Garrahan and Joe Sinclair. Edited by Paolo Pascual. Additional footage from Reuters. â–º Subscribe to the Financial Times on YouTube: http://bit.ly/FTimeSubs â–º Read Moscow thanks UK for helping Putin win landslide vote in Russia: http://on.ft.com/2pthnNt

The Ukrainian authorities began to seize assets of the Russian holding company Gazprom for allegedly failing to comply with the Stockholm Arbitration Order and violating the monopoly legislation of Ukraine. It happened following the comments of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers. According to the court decision, the department of the state executive service intends to recover from Gazprom almost 172 billion hryvnia in favor of the state budget of Ukraine. "In this case, the identification and arrest of assets belonging to Gazprom in Ukraine began," it was reported. Among being seized the property of the companies Gazpromprom Ukraina and the...

Horrifying pictures have emerged showing young victims of an alleged chemical attack on a rebel-held village in Syria. A rescuer is shown cradling a little boy in his arms after the child was killed during airstrikes on al-Shifuniyah in Syria's Eastern Ghouta. Medics say the youngster was poisoned to death in a gas attack as dictator Bashar al-Assad's forces continue their deadly assault on the region. Shocking photos also show children and babies gasping for air and using breathing apparatus at a make-shift hospital.

Lissa Lucas, a candidate in this year’s Democratic primary for West Virginia delegates, was escorted out of the Charleston state house because she read a list of House members and how much they pocketed from oil and gas companies. Newsweek reported that the meeting was about a proposal, the Co-Tenancy and Majority Protection Act, or H.B. 4268, that would allow these companies to drill on “minority mineral owners’ land without their consent.” The report said that some landowners worry that the bill will allow these companies to drill on their properties for the minerals located below. The West Virginia Oil...

As if the recent nosedive that oil prices have taken in the last few days wasn’t bad enough—Baker Hughes reported a staggering increase to the number of rigs. The number of active oil and gas rigs increased by 29 to Baker Hughes data. This brings the total number of oil and gas rigs to 975, which is an addition of 234 rigs year over year.

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Chevron Corporation announced Wednesday that a ‘major’ oil discovery has been made at the Ballymore prospect, located deep offshore in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Ballymore well reached a total measured depth of 29,194 feet and encountered more than 670 feet of net oil pay with ‘excellent’ reservoir and fluid characteristics, Chevron said in a statement on its website. A sidetrack well is currently being drilled to further assess the discovery, which is already deemed commercially viable. “The Gulf of Mexico deepwater is an integral part of our company’s long-term strategy,” Jeff Shellebarger, president of Chevron North America Exploration...