Wednesday Morning News And Links

Active rigs: 187 (steady)

RBN Energy: Additional crude oil pipeline capacity; more conversions

This time we look at the open season that Energy Transfer Partners launched last week for their proposed conversion of part of the existing Trunkline gas pipeline into the Eastern Gulf Crude Access pipeline (EGCAP). The proposed Energy Transfer pipeline is being pitched at exactly the same time as a complimentary project operated by Enbridge that would link the latter’s huge Lakehead system running from Western Canada to Flanagan, IL, with EGCAP in Patoka via another new pipeline called the Southern Access Extension Pipeline (SAX).

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal):
A Windows laptop at an Apple price -- Walter Mossberg.

Laptop sales have been tanking as tablets surge. The new Windows 8 is off to a slow start with users. And the hybrid machines that claim to work as both tablets and laptops are still niche products. So what's a laptop maker to do? 

I've been testing a Kirabook for the past five days and I found it to be a good computer whose strongest feature is a brilliant, high-resolution screen. It's a speedy and reliable machine that's thin and light without feeling cheap. 

But I consider it overpriced for what it offers. It actually costs more than a MacBook Air, but with much worse battery life, an older processor and a design that looks like a lot of other grayish, metallic laptops. 

In addition to its high price, the biggest downsides of the Kirabook are Windows 8, whose two very different user interfaces can be confusing; mediocre battery life; and the fact it uses older processors. 

By contrast, as of Monday, the MacBook Air uses the latest Intel processors, just out, which promise huge increases in battery life and better graphics. The Kirabooks aren't due to be upgraded to these new chips till the fourth quarter. 

Section C (Money & Investing):

• Illinois paid a premium to see $600 million of muni bonds after state's credit rating was downgraded.

Section B (Marketplace):

• Pandora buys radio station in Rapid City, SD, to lower royalty payments.

Pandora said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it believes owning even a single station will entitle the company to pay lower royalties for certain rights, saving it nearly 1% of revenue. Pandora's revenue in the most recent financial quarter totaled $70.6 million.

• Apple's rising star: Craig Federighi

Section A: