On the border: Mexico’s national oil monopoly has been issuing critical alerts in recent weeks, warning of natural gas shortages lasting hours or even days and crimping supplies to homes, power plants and factories, The Houston Chronicle reports. Yet the country has some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves and easy access to a cheap and plentiful U.S. supply. Amid renewed political pressure to further open Mexico’s energy industries to private interests, energy planners have launched a frenzied expansion of the country’s inadequate pipeline system. As much as 3 billion additional cubic feet per day of U.S. natural gas—most of it from Texas—will feed the new grid. Learn all about the plans in the full story here.
There’s the law, there’s an arm, there’s a hand: A law intended to prohibit the payment of bribes to foreign officials by U.S. businesses has produced more than $3 billion in settlements. But as The New York Times reports, a list of the top companies making these settlements is notable in one respect: its lack of American names. The lone American company in the top 10 is KBR, the former Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, a Texas oil services company. As a group, they have paid nearly $3.2 billion in settlements. Read the full story here.
Dirty work: Crews today continue to pitchfork the remains of nutria killed during Hurricane Isaac into front-end loaders on Hancock County, Miss., beaches. County officials say some streets with access to the beach have been closed while workers in hazardous materials suits try to pick up all the carcasses. They estimate that more than 15,000 nutria killed by Isaac’s storm surge have washed up on the beach. “They’re actually starting to swell up and bust. It smells really bad. So, any sightseers, you might want to second-guess this one before you come out,” says Hancock County Supervisor David Yarborough. Read the full story here.
