Morocco/Reuters – Almost 200 nations began work on Monday to turn promises for fighting climate change into action at a UN conference that played down threats to a 2015 global agreement if Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency. At the start of two-week talks in Morocco, many delegates wore badges with a smiling picture […] Read more

Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action

Clinton campaign studying alternative to U.S. ethanol mandate
Washington/San Francisco | Reuters — Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has solicited advice from California regulators on how to revamp a federal regulation requiring biofuels such as corn-based ethanol be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, according to campaign and state officials. The move is the clearest sign yet that, if elected, Clinton […] Read more

U.S., European trade negotiators battle political headwinds
New York | Reuters — Facing deeply entrenched differences and political headwinds, the top negotiators trying to reach a sweeping U.S.-European free trade deal avoided agriculture, public procurement and other thorny issues in talks this week. Instead, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Daniel Mullaney and European Commission lead negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercera said on Friday they […] Read more

Cruz’s Iowa victory could show Big Corn’s waning influence
New York | Reuters — U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s victory on Monday in corn-rich Iowa could represent a major blow to the country’s controversial biofuels program, reflecting its waning influence over politicians even in the U.S. farm heartland. Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas and outspoken opponent of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), […] Read more