LOCAL BUSINESS
Myers does refinancing
Myers Industries Inc. of Akron said it made financing changes involving $200 million over a five-year period. The company said the change replaced a previous credit agreement that was to expire in November 2015. Myers said the arrangement was assisted by JPMorgan Securities and U.S. Bank.
In a statement, Myers said, “This credit facility provides the company long-term financing at attractive pricing and flexibility through 2018. Together with our recent $100 million private placement of notes, the company has capacity to fund its strategic initiatives.”
ENERGY
New fracking rules
California drillers eager to use hydraulic fracturing to tap the nation’s largest oil shale formation will next year face comprehensive regulation for the first time under rules issued this week.
The rules, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, will be replaced a year later by permanent regulations that are still being developed, but are expected to be similar. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that established the outlines for the regulations on the method known as fracking, by which oil or natural gas is extracted out of underground rocks through the use of a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals.
The new rules will require drillers to alert neighboring landowners at least 30 days before fracking and to test their water wells upon request.
The drillers must do other groundwater monitoring and also disclose many of the chemicals used, such as acids, which are sometimes used in fracking to dissolve rock to access oil.
Although the new rules cover many phases of the fracking process, analysts say the rules fall short of what many environmental groups want.
FOOD
Horse meat investigation
French police conducted searches across the nation’s south in an effort to halt trafficking of horse meat unfit for human consumption that was entering the food chain, the Agriculture Ministry said.
The attorney general of Marseilles led an operation involving about 100 officers across 11 administrative departments, the ministry said.
French authorities arrested 21 suspects in raids for trading horse meat treated with antibiotics and barred from human consumption, the Associated Press reported, citing law-enforcement officials. The meat is commonly eaten in parts of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy, according to the website of Humane Society International.
“The current operation seeks to dismantle an organized traffic of which the scope, including in other countries, will be determined by the results of the investigation,” the ministry wrote.
Slaughter on way
Companies in New Mexico and Missouri could begin slaughtering horses within a few weeks after a federal appeals court removed a temporary ban that was preventing domestic horse slaughter from resuming for the first time since 2007.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver lifted an emergency injunction it had issued in November after animal protection groups appealed the ruling of a federal judge in Albuquerque.
The judge said the U.S. Department of Agriculture followed proper procedure in issuing permits to Valley Meat Co. in Roswell, N.M., Rains Natural Meats of Gallatin, Mo., and Responsible Transportation in Sigourney, Iowa.
The appeals court’s order said the groups “failed to meet their burden for an injunction pending appeal.”
WALL STREET
Dow rises 129 points
Corporate deals and fresh evidence of a stronger economy are giving the stock market a jolt.
LSI Corp. rose Monday after chipmaker Avago Technologies said it was buying the company for $6.6 billion. AIG was up after it announced the sale of its aircraft leasing business for about $5.4 billion.
The Federal Reserve said factory production accelerated in November as auto production surged.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 129 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 15,884.57. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,786.54. The Nasdaq rose 28 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,029.52.
Compiled from staff and wire reports