Mention

With a major pre-summer heat wave solidly entrenched from the South through the Midwest and threatening to spread into the Northeast — not to mention traders eyeing the prospects of a Caribbean low-pressure area that could become a tropical depression as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — prices rose at nearly all points Monday.

There was no mention of financier Carl Icahn’s recent demands on Kerr-McGee Corp. during the company’s 1Q2005 conference call with analysts last week, but his group’s calls to shake things up to increase shareholder value was evident.

There was no mention of financier Carl Icahn’s recent demands on Kerr-McGee Corp. during the company’s 1Q2005 conference call with analysts on Wednesday, but his group’s calls to shake things up to increase shareholder value was evident.

While President Bush gave only brief mention to the energy bill in his State of the Union address last Wednesday, debate over controversial energy items such as jurisdiction over liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) escalated on Capitol Hill, particularly in the House, as lawmakers there get ready to take up the energy bill anew.

Only a small part of the energy plan that was officially released Friday by Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards was devoted to natural gas. Most of the proposal focused on crude oil, electricity, alternative fuels and coal.