Chemical Industry Weekly Industry News Round-Up, Feb. 18

This Week on CW:

Air Products has dropped its $70/share hostile bid for Airgas as a court upheld the latter's poison pill.

LyondellBasell's profits are way, way up.

Bayer has started up a pilot plant that will use carbon dioxide as a feedstock for making plastics.

The Obama administration's fiscal 2012 budget will ramp up energy research funding and reinstate Superfund taxes, among other things.

Around the Web:

The Economist has a fascinating look at 3D printing, which could change manufacturing as we know it.

Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris appears to have the ear of the White House, in The Detroit News.

A new drilling technique could open up new oil fields in North America, the Associated Press reports.