Often lost in the political wrangling over the controversial Keystone XL pipeline – on hold after President Obama rejected TransCanada’s initial construction proposal – are some key findings that run counter to the rosy picture of abundant supply and lower prices so often painted by US politicians.

Canadian companies backing the Keystone XL – touted as enhancing US energy security with a big new surge of imported Canadian oil – actually expect it to supply more lucrative Gulf Coast export markets as well as raise Midwest oil prices by reducing “oversupply” in that region.

These little-publicized findings are contained in the studies and testimony of experts working for TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands across America’s heartland to Gulf Coast refineries.

Some of these concerns popped up, albeit briefly, in US congressional testimony last year on the pipeline project, and have given rise to a recent proposal to bar the sale of Keystone oil overseas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46689167/ns/us_news-christian_science_monitor/#.T1uvg3lKbms

A million dollars can buy a mansion in one of Sacramento's nicest neighborhoods, near its best schools and parks.

Or it can buy an ever-dwindling number of weeks in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

Bradley Showalter, an Arden gas station attendant and laid-off construction manager, can't afford either of those expenses, but the cancer eating his liver didn't get the memo, so he's steeling himself for a massive bill related to a future organ transplant.

Sarah Eide hasn't given the million-dollar hospital bill her family will receive much thought. She's too concerned over the health of her newborn child, Austin, who has spent the first 140 days of his life in a Sacramento hospital.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/11/4328036/million-dollar-hospital-bills.html#storylink=cpy

Ford is thinking of selling its top-of-the-line Lincolns in China, according to company executives. Why not? Mercedes-Benz and Audi notched sales gains exceeding 35% last year, easily outpacing a sluggish market there. In 2011, passenger car sales increased only 5.19%, a reflection of inevitable slowing after a period of torrid growth, especially in 2009 and 2010.

David Schoch, chairman and chief executive of Ford China, says his company will outperform the China market, the world’s largest, in 2012. He needs to do that in order to justify big bets Ford has made in Chongqing, where it opened a $490 million passenger car factory late last month.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers forecasts sales in the country to increase 9.5% in 2012, but that’s optimistic. “The best scenario is for annual car sales to remain flat, even if automakers try harder in the latter half,” says Zhang Xin of Guotai Junan Securities. “The current official forecast for about 10 percent growth doesn’t look realistic.”

So far, Zhang looks correct as the year has not started out well. Car sales plunged 23.8% in January. The Lunar New Year break adversely affected the number, but the results for the first two months, when they are aggregated to eliminate the holiday effect, may not look much better. According to analyst estimates, sales for the January-to-February period will fall 3% from the same months in 2011. If that happens, it will be the worst start to a year since 2005.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2012/03/04/fordgetaboutit-china-to-buy-only-domestic-branded-cars/