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Duke Energy unit to build three solar projects in Eastern North Carolina:

Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy, has begun construction of three utility-scale solar power projects totaling 30 megawatts (MW) AC in Eastern North Carolina. The 20-MW Dogwood Solar Power Project is located in Halifax County, near Scotland Neck. The company is also building two 5-MW projects, one in Bertie County near Windsor, named Windsor Cooper Hill Solar. The other, Bethel Price Solar, is in Pitt County, near Bethel. 

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Ten (10) companies announce increased dividends/distributions, including WMB. Whoohoo. Payable December 30, 2013.

Crude oil will take a hit today, following the Iran deal. Dow futures suggest the overall market will offset oil news for diversified investors.

This is kind of a fun story from seacoast online:

For decades, presidential candidates' chances in Iowa were wounded if not doomed unless they backed federal support for ethanol, a boon to the state's corn-growing economy.

That rule of politics collapsed resoundingly in the 2012 campaign when five of the six top Republican candidates said it was time for such intervention in the private market to end. Now, Iowa's senior political leaders are pondering how to shore up political support for the corn-based fuel at a time when its economic and environmental benefits are under attack.

The latest blow came this month, when the Obama administration proposed cutting the required amount of ethanol in the nation's fuel supply for the first time since Congress established a standard in 2007.

The state's leading Republicans and Democrats hope they can still use Iowa's political importance as a swing-voting state and as the site of the first presidential nominating contest to get candidates to support keeping the requirement, or at least part of it, in place.

But the case has become a tough sell for Republicans as the party has moved to the right and become increasingly hostile to government programs and directives.

Even among Democrats, concern has grown about ethanol's role in rising food prices and in cultivation of land that had been used for conservation.

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So, is anything going on in pre-market trading?

AAPL is up a couple of bucks.

From yesterday, over at SeekingAlpha: Enbridge's strong pipeline network expansion is set to drive earnings and distributions. But there is nothing in the article that regular readers did not already know:

Enbridge has a strong position in Canadian oil sands and makes continued progress in adding oil sands projects to its pipeline system. Enbridge's Wood Buffalo Extension project in Alberta adds 280 miles (a capacity 490/570 kbpd) to its existing network. Its Norlite Diluent Pipeline in Alberta comprises of 304 miles of additional pipeline and 270/400 kbpd. Both pipelines are expected to come online in 2017 and require investments of about $3 billion.

The company is a valid long-term alternative to sector darlings Kinder Morgan Energy Partners or Plains All American Pipeline which have their operations in the US. Enbridge's extensive pipeline investments in Canada and the US should prove profitable when the oil and natural gas bonanza in North America continues. North American energy self-sufficiency will increase the interconnectedness of the Canadian and US energy markets.