News bites: Biden hits Romney on energy tax credits, natural-gas prices rise

CBS News reports that Vice President Biden is bashing Mitt Romney over “the Republican's reluctance to embrace tax credits for wind and solar energy.”

Bloomberg reports that natural-gas prices jumped to a five-month high amid “forecasts for hotter-than-normal weather that would boost fuel demand from power plants.”

Reuters reports that Asian oil imports from Iran are falling amid looming sanctions.

“Asia's top buyers of Iranian oil cut imports by more than a quarter of a million barrels per day in the first five months of the year as they prepared for U.S. sanctions that take effect on Thursday and EU curbs that bite from Sunday,” the news service reports.

Reuters also reports that Gulf of Mexico oil-and-gas producers have resumed nearly all the output that was suspended due to Tropical Storm Debby.