Taiwan Watching Chinese Movements After Beijing Denounces US Speaker Meeting
Taiwan was keeping a close watch on a Chinese aircraft carrier and threats to inspect ships in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday after Beijing condemned a meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.McCarthy - the third highest ranking official in the U.S. leadership hierarchy - and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers met Tsai on Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.The meeting took place at a low ebb of U.S.-China relations and despite threats of retaliation from Beijing…
U.S. Designates Already Sanctioned Russian Ship as Helping to Build Nord Stream 2 Pipeline
The Biden administration on Friday identified a Russian ship and a company it believes are helping to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but the entities had already been sanctioned by the Trump administration and the project's opponents in Congress said the move would do little to halt work on it.The State Department said in a report to Congress that the Russian ship, the Fortuna, and its owner, KVT-RUS, had been designated, a process that starts new sanctions, two lawmakers said.Both entities had been sanctioned by former President Donald Trump on his last full day in office last month for helping to build the natural gas pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe via Germany."Simply put…
U.S. Lawmakers ask Blinken for Briefing on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline
Several U.S. Representatives on Wednesday raised pressure on the State Department to share plans on potential sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline Russia is racing to finish to take fuel to Europe."If completed, Nord Stream 2 would enable the Putin regime to further weaponize Russia's energy resources to exert political pressure throughout Europe," two Republicans including Michael McCaul, and two Democrats including Marcy Kaptur, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.U.S. representatives and senators have said that the Biden administration has missed a deadline of Feb. 16 to issue Congress a report required by recently passed law on companies helping Russia's state energy company Gazprom lay pipeline…
US Rejects China's Claims in South China Sea
The United States on Monday rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea, a move that Beijing criticized as inciting tensions in the region and which highlighted an increasingly testy relationship.China has offered no coherent legal basis for its ambitions in the South China Sea and for years has been using intimidation against other Southeast Asian coastal states, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.“We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful…
Texas Ranks Third for U.S. Maritime Jobs, Houston No. 2
Texas ranks third among all states for domestic maritime jobs with Houston ranked second among all U.S. cities for its contribution to the U.S. maritime industry, according to a new study PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for the Transportation Institute and released by the American Maritime Partnership (AMP), the voice of the U.S. domestic maritime industry. The domestic maritime industry, comprised of the vessels which move cargoes between American ports, pumps $8 billion annually into the Texas economy, and provides 39,190 Texas maritime jobs, with $2.3 billion in worker income.
Bill Aims to Lift Ban on Texas Energy Exports
Congressman Michael McCaul introduced H.R. 4349, the Crude Oil Export Act, which lifts the 1970s era prohibition on the export of American crude oil and would remove the major remaining barrier that keeps the U.S. from being competitive with other oil exporting nations. McCaul said, "Most of America's crude oil production is taking place underneath the feet of Texans in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin. According to McCaul, the Crude Oil Export Act will repeal the 1970s era ban on crude oil exports; maintain a ban on crude oil exports to any country that is subject to U.S. trade restrictions, sanctions or that the President or Congress has designated as subject to exclusion for national security reasons…
Houston Hosts Homeland Security Briefing
At a briefing held Wednesday at the Port of Houston Authority, U.S. McCaul chose the port as the site to host the briefing on security and emergency preparedness to illustrate the importance of the Port of Houston to the nation's economy and energy security. The Port of Houston is home to the largest petrochemical manufacturing complex in the United States and second largest in the world. McCaul met with Port of Houston Authority officials as well as Houston, Harris County and…
