What’s in store: The full calendar of more than 100 events for the 7th annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week has been released. Produced by The Idea Village, Entrepreneur Week activities will be headquartered on Fulton Street in downtown New Orleans between March 20 and 27. More than 10,000 attendees are expected to participate. Events include 30 pitch competitions, as well as 70 panel discussions, workshops and networking events. See the full lineup.
Where it’s going: Most of the heavy Canadian crude oil expected to flow through the Keystone XL pipeline would be refined in the United States, and the resulting gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products would be consumed domestically, according to a new analysis. The report from consulting firm IHS debunks a major argument of the pipeline’s critics, who have cast the project as an “export pipeline” that would only ferry crude through the United States en route to other countries. But IHS says Gulf Coast refiners are hungry for the heavy crude that would come from Canada. FuelFix.com has the full story.
How it feels: U.S. consumers are feeling a bit less confident this month, but their spirits are still at the highest levels since before the Great Recession. The Conference Board says this morning that its consumer confidence index dropped in February to 96.4 from a revised 103.8 in January. Nonetheless, the February and January readings are the highest since before the recession officially started in December 2007. The index shows consumers are modestly less confident about current economic conditions and considerably less confident about the next six months. The Associated Press has the full story.
