Getting better: BP CEO Bob Dudley joined a growing chorus of oil leaders today in predicting the historic lows in crude prices over the past two years are nearing an end, FuelFix.com reports. “I’m happy to report that the global supply and demand balance recently have moved toward a better balance,” Dudley said during a speech today at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “We expect this trend to continue in the second half of 2016. But we’re not expecting the days of $100 oil to return anytime soon, so we must maintain our discipline.” Dudley, who was named CEO in 2010, predicted an oil price of $50 a barrel at the end of this year and between $50 and $60 oil prices next year. The comments came during a wide-ranging speech that touched on matters of clean energy technology and world politics. Dudley also cited as cause for concern an “increasingly tangled web” of U.S. regulations and rising litigation costs here, as BP discovered in the aftermath of its Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010.
Settling up: Volkswagen AG will pay nearly $10.3 billion to settle claims by U.S. regulators stemming from its diesel emissions cheating scandal, a source briefed on the agreement tells Reuters. The settlement includes offers to buy back nearly 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles and to set aside billions of dollars for green energy projects and a program to offset excess diesel pollution, the source says. Speaking on condition of anonymity, due to court-imposed gag rules, the source says the average compensation to owners was around $5,000. The settlement is currently valued at nearly $10.3 billion in some settlement documents, the source added, saying final numbers could change before a Tuesday court deadline. Volkswagen and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment. There may be additional costs to VW disclosed on Tuesday, beyond the $10.3 billion figure, sources familiar with the matter say. The settlement also does not address lawsuits filed by U.S. states or investors or a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Read the full story.
From the bench: In a major victory for affirmative action, a divided Supreme Court today upheld the University of Texas admissions program that takes account of race. The Associated Press reports the justices voted in favor of the Texas program by a 4-3 vote, an outcome that was dramatically altered by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who opposed affirmative action. The high court ruled in the case of Abigail Fisher, a white Texan who was denied admission to the university’s flagship campus in Austin in 2008. Fisher claimed she was rejected while African-American applicants with lower grades and test scores were admitted. The school said Fisher, who did not graduate in the top 10% of her high school class, would not have been admitted with or without race as a factor. But officials did conditionally offer to allow her to transfer in as a sophomore if she maintained a 3.2 grade point average at another public college in Texas. Instead, Fisher went to LSU, from which she graduated in 2012, and pursued her lawsuit. Read the full story.
