Oil

What Is Benzene? | Chemical Safety Facts

What Is Benzene? | Chemical Safety Facts

As a building block chemical, benzene is reacted with other chemicals to produce a variety of other chemistries, materials and, ultimately, consumer goods.

Benzene is used to make other chemicals like ethylbenzene, cumene and cyclohexane, which are then reacted and used in the manufacture of a variety of materials and plastics such as polystyrene, ABS, and nylon. There can be many steps in the process that starts with the benzene molecule and ends with a completed material or consumer product. For example, benzene is a building block used to make ethylbenzene, which is then used to make styrene, which is used to make polystyrene. The end material, polystyrene, is a completely different material chemically than benzene.

For consumer products where benzene is used as a building block or intermediate, the benzene is typically fully reacted in a closed system, with little to no benzene remaining in the finished consumer product.

Benzene also is used to make some types of lubricants, rubbers, dyes, detergents, drugs, explosives and pesticides.

NPR

Trump Signs Executive Orders In Push To Make It Easier To Build Oil And Gas Pipelines : NPR

After speaking at the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center, Trump signed two executive orders aiming to make it easier for companies to build oil and gas pipeline projects — and harder for states to block them.

"Republican lawmakers and energy groups have long accused blue states of blocking pipeline projects using a section of the Clean Water Act," NPR's Nathan Rott reports for our Newscast unit. "One of Trump's executive orders will aim to weaken that power. Whether that actually happens will remain to be seen. Executive orders only do so much — and lawsuits are sure to follow."

Trump's pipeline orders mark his latest effort to push for infrastructure projects his administration says will "unleash American energy."

Trump OPEC tweet calls for oil cartel to boost production as gas rises

Trump OPEC tweet calls for oil cartel to boost production as gas rises

"Oil experts were thinking "it was just a matter of time" before Trump tweeted about it, "and of course this morning he delivers," said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy. "Everyone's seen gas prices surge across the country," he said.

"But analysts don't expect OPEC to take action to bolster production, which could theoretically ease oil prices. Oil is refined into gasoline, so oil prices have a direct impact on what Americans pay at the pump."