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Crude oil has topped $110/barrel. Although our largest single supplier is (surprise?!) Canada, others aren't so favorably inclined or located. Gasoline prices soar to new highs, even when adjusted for inflation (1960's 31¢/gal. should equate to $2.21/gal. today — a real bargain). Why don't we grow our own fuel? Biofuel. Full article here: http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=36&article_id=6791&print_page=y

The time has come for Congress to rethink ethanol, an alternative fuel that has lately fallen from favor. Specifically, it is time to end an outdated tax break for corn ethanol and to call a timeout in the fivefold increase in ethanol production mandated in the 2007 energy bill. This does not mean that Congress should give up on biofuels as an important part of the effort to reduce the country’s dependency on imported oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What it does mean is that some biofuels are (or are likely to be) better than others, and that Congress...

EVER since former Vice President Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize for his fight against expanding climate change, there have been claims that nuclear power plants are the easy solution. They give phenomenal amounts of energy, after all, without much carbon production. Some who seek facile solutions say it's about time to dump the safeguards of 1976's Proposition 15, which essentially put a stop to atomic-power facility construction in California after completion of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant on the central coast. One example: Last fall, Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Orange County introduced a bill aiming...

The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, Daniel Yergin, has summed up what many of us are thinking: “We are living in a new age of energy anxiety.” No one feels this anxiety more than the American families who are shouldering the burden of nearly $125 per barrel oil. The average mini-van owner is now spending upwards of $70 for a tank of unleaded gasoline. And it can cost up to $80 to fill up a pickup truck! Now more than ever, we must adopt a comprehensive solution that will place more...

The public must pressure Republicans in the White House and Congress to change directions in the country's energy policies, which have pushed oil and gas prices to record highs, a Democratic lawmaker said Saturday. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said the rising price of oil, fostered by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's close ties to the oil industry, is no longer just a burden. "Now it is a crisis for every American family," the Michigan senator said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. She called the current energy situation "a crisis that doesn't just affect us at the pump, but...

TEHRAN (RIA Novosti) - The price of oil could reach $200 per barrel if current market conditions persist, Iran’s oil minister said on Thursday. “If the current conditions remain the same, a period when oil is supplied at $200 a barrel is not out of the question,” Gholamhossein Nozari told the IRNA news agency. He said the weak US dollar and supply concerns from Nigeria were the main reasons behind the surge in oil prices. On Wednesday, crude prices hit a record high of $123.53 a barrel. “The US dollar has weakened ... Another reason is related to problems in...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a planned gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from U.S. lawmakers who were concerned about Iran's nuclear programme. A spokeswoman said on Saturday that the world's second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field but may yet join later stages of the field's development. Shell, Spain's Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to...

Duke Energy and smart grid company GridPoint said on Thursday that they have found a way for people to charge plug-in hybrid cars in a way that won't bring the power grid to its knees. "If suddenly you have 20,000 or 30,000 rechargeable cars--with maybe 50,000 in a few years--plugging into the grid at night, utilities have to react to that or you'll have serious problems," Lewis said in an October interview. "You see plug-in hybrids becoming a big issue; it's a tidal wave coming at utilities."

At a press conference today, leaders from farm and ethanol groups pointed to skyrocketing oil prices, hedge fund commodity speculators, growing worldwide demand for grain and severe droughts as the major factors underlying rising food prices. They also pointed to the expansion of biofuels as preventing even higher oil prices. The groups cited Merrill Lynch analyst Francisco Blanch’s estimate that oil and gasoline prices would be about 15% higher, or $4.14 a gallon at today’s prices, if biofuel producers weren't increasing their output.

It’s hard to overemphasize Gazprom’s role in the Russian economy. It’s a sprawling company that raked in $91 billion last year; it employs 432,000 people, pays taxes equal to 20 percent of the Russian budget and has subsidiaries in industries as disparate as farming and aviation. ... When Mr. Putin was still president, he used Gazprom’s wealth and economic might to fight political enemies inside Russia, to reassert influence over former Soviet republics, to gain leverage over Western European countries by increasing their dependence on Russian gas, and to wrest Russian energy assets back from foreign companies. ...Mr. Putin denied...

The clock is ticking on public acceptance of ethanol as the United States’ corn-based industry is under relentless attack. With cellulosic conversion technologies as the ostensible lone saving grace for ethanol, Biomass Magazine takes a look at what fruits the first-quarter ‘08 produced.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 2 -- US Senate Republicans responded May 1 to near record-high oil prices with a bill to authorize leasing within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and increase access to the Outer Continental Shelf. S. 2958, the American Energy Production Act, would produce as much as 24 billion bbl of oil from ANWR and the OCS, enough to supply domestic needs for 5 years, according to bill sponsor Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), who also is ranking minority member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee. Seventeen other Senate Republicans are cosponsors. "For years now, I have been...

li Jarekji/Reuters Shukri Ghanem, Libya's senior oil official. A member of OPEC signaled for the first time in months that the oil cartel might increase its output if prices keep rising, even as oil hit another record on Friday.The comments from Libya's senior oil official, Shukri Ghanem, suggested a possible rift among OPEC members. Since the cartel's last meeting in March, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has argued that the market was not lacking in oil supplies and blamed speculators for driving up prices.In recent weeks, prices have come under renewed pressure because of a string of export disruptions from...

Conventional wisdom says water in ethanol is bad, but a new technical understanding is emerging that could dramatically improve corn-based ethanol’s environmental footprint while revolutionizing how the alternative fuel is made, transported and used. By Ron Kotrba lot of attention is being focused on midlevel ethanol blends. If that’s considered a hot topic then issue of midlevel hydrous blends reaches the magnitude of a Super Nova. A convincing message is reaching influential ears in government and private industry, and it turns conventional wisdom on its head. The accepted truth is that water in ethanol is bad—period. As such, anhydrous “water-free”...

It’s touted as a superior renewable fuel but challenges have stymied the industrial-scale production of biobutanol. Now, however, Dupont and BP have teamed to develop and commercialize the fuel. This comes as scientists announce advancements in the design of process technologies and the engineering of microbes aimed at improving the economics of mass-producing biobutanol.

COW POWER Vermont dairy farmers work with a utility to diversify their incomes, using AD systems to generate biogas for electricity. THROUGH its award-winning Cow Power program, Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS), a Vermont utility headquartered in the city of Rutland, is helping dairy farmers diversify their incomes by turning manure into electricity. The farmers process manure in anaerobic digesters to generate power, which CVPS customers voluntarily pay a premium to purchase. In addition to income from electricity sales, farmers are reaping other benefits from digesting the manure, including capturing surplus heat for their farms and hot water, using the...

The FINANCIAL -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce raised alarm over legislation introduced by Senator Harry Reid to repeal tax incentives for oil exploration, impose a 25% windfall tax on oil companies, and allow consumers to sue nations that supply oil to the U.S. "Higher taxes and more lawsuits won't lower the price of gas at the pump or make America more energy secure. If this legislation is enacted, Americans must be prepared for potential oil supply disruptions and higher prices for gasoline, home heating oil and natural gas," said Bill Kovacs, vice president of Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs...

With summer finally kicking into gear across the country, you can almost hear the gentle hum of air conditioners ratcheting up. And with it, climbs home energy bills. These days, the average household spends $1,900 annually on energy (based on electricity and gas usage), according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But much of that, say energy conservationists, is money wasted. The good news: Cutting back doesn't mean you need to be a tree-hugging naturalist, suffering stoically as you read by candlelight. These days, you can do right by the environment and your pocketbook—without any major lifestyle sacrifices. In fact,...

OUR THREE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SHARE THIS PECULIAR infirmity: None of them has any backbone. If they did, then instead of blaming Big Oil for soaring energy prices, they would stand up to some real culprits responsible for the run-up. These are politically powerful coastal states like Florida, New Jersey and California, which time after time have placed their parochial interests ahead of the nation's critical need for energy independence by prohibiting the offshore production of natural gas and oil. Of course, oil companies have no electoral votes. And wealthy Californians, some of whom own property overlooking the oil-rich Santa Barbara...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today introduced legislation intended to dramatically increase domestic production of oil and natural gas in order to lower prices and make America less dependent on foreign sources of oil. The American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S.2958) was introduced today by Domenici and nineteen co-sponsors from across the country. By expanding production offshore and in Alaska, the legislation will produce up to 24 billion barrels of oil-enough to keep America running for five years with no foreign imports. In addition, billions more barrels of...

With the nation’s economic anxieties growing in direct proportion to oil prices, let’s not forget this fact: that the Left’s decades-long refusal to address domestic energy supply will cost Americans more than the soaring gas prices they are already paying. Who is to blame for increasing gas prices? Listening to the rhetoric on the Left, it’s the fault of George Bush, or, better yet, Dick Cheney, who must be making some money on the side. (Is it part of a Halliburton plot?) Moving rightward, a surprising number of conservatives seem to be buying into the notion that soaring oil prices...

NGHI SON, Vietnam (AFP) - Energy-hungry Vietnam started building its second oil refinery on Saturday, a 6.2 billion dollar complex, in a bid to feed the nation's booming economy, the State Oil company announced. Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam), the oil monopoly in the communist nation, set up a joint-venture with its counterparts from Japan and Kuwait to build Nghi Son refinery in the north of the country. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung hailed the project at the ground-breaking ceremony, saying it was the country's most important and biggest power scheme, attracting capital investment of 6.2 billion dollars....

WASHINGTON, DC, May 9 -- US Senate Democrats presented their legislative response to record high oil prices on May 7, introducing their energy bill 6 days after Republicans introduced theirs. The primary difference between the two measures was apparent in their titles. Republicans called their bill the American Energy Production Act. Democrats named theirs the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 and incorporated provisions similar to several in HR 5351, which the House passed by 236 to 182 votes on Feb. 27 largely along party lines. Those provisions include moving $17 billion in financial incentives from major oil companies to alternative...

Gas prices are so high Mark Gleim chooses to drive a scooter. “As gas prices keep on climbing, I’m going to keep on driving it, just keep on beating it into the ground,” says Gleim.With no relief in site, some in Congress want to offer up Florida’s coast to oil companies. David Mica with the Florida Petroleum Council says drilling closer to shore could lower gas prices."Anytime we add to that supply side it’s a positive and can have a real significant impact on that whole equation of price and supply,” says Mica. Environmentalists say there isn’t a significant amount...

OK!!! Lately, there seems to have been a torrent of info, ads, websites, radio shows, etc about "run your car on water". Including the C2C show last night, that featured Ari Cohen & Fred Gutierrez, promoters of a site called water4gas. So my question is: Are they shucksters? The basic idea is somewhat misstated. You obviously can't "burn water" Well, maybe you could if you lived on a planet with a Flourine atmosphere or something. But what these devices do is to take water, and using electricity from your battery/alternator, decompose it back into the hydrogen and oxygen it is...

Last week President George W. Bush held a press conference on the current state of the economy and the high cost of energy. In it he made several important points. First, he noted that one reason gas prices are increasing is that global supply has not kept pace with the growing demand worldwide. Members of Congress, he noted, “have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home. They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR. The Department of Energy estimates that...

Although you can definitely pre-order an Aptera if you're okay with space-aged design, Volkswagen is hoping to provide another option for those looking for ridiculous MPG and a little bit of normalcy in construction. Okay, so maybe the 1-Liter isn't exactly standard fare -- with its plastic / magnesium shell and all-glass roof -- but at least it packs four whole wheels and an iconic VW badge, right? According to Motor Authority, the automaker will be producing said vehicle and pushing it to market as early as 2010, and while the minuscule engine will only take you to 75MPH, it...

MAY ePOLL Do you agree that Americas push to produce more ethanol as a motor fuel is a sound policy economically and environmentally? Results To Date Yes: 50 No: 326 Don't Know 19 Total: 395

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It is controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How? First, the role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex...

Diesel owners who switch to cooking grease can run afoul of the law. Just ask the governor. Dave Eck, a Half Moon Bay mechanic, had attracted a media spotlight with his fleet of vehicles fueled by used fryer grease from a local chowder house. So when Sacramento called, he figured officials wanted advice on promoting alternative fuels. Not at all. The government rang to notify Eck that he was a tax cheat. He was scolded for failing to get a "diesel fuel supplier's license," reporting quarterly how many gallons of grease he burns, and paying a tax on each gallon....

BELGRADE, May 9 (Itar-Tass) -- The Serbian government has unanimously approved the oil and gas agreement with Russia and recommended the parliament to ratify it, the government press office said on Friday. The agreement will now be submitted for ratification to the new parliament, as the current parliament is dismissed to order of the national president. A protocol to the Serbian-Russian Intergovernmental Agreement on Oil and Gas Cooperation says that the agreement must be ratified by May 25. Russia has done that, and the delayed ratification in Serbia, which was caused by the breakdown of the ruling coalition, is immaterial....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices. E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars. The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle -- minus the slot for a credit card, or the digital "SALE" numbers that whir ever faster at retail pumps as global demand pushes fuel prices to record levels. Instead of tapping...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices leapt to a new peak of more than $126 a barrel on Friday, hitting a record for the fifth straight session, in a market given an additional spur by tight supplies of diesel. U.S. crude for June delivery rose $1.87 to $125.56 by 9:35 a.m. EDT, off a record high of $126.20 a barrel. London Brent crude rose $2.81 to $125.65 per barrel. "I'm not particularly surprised by the speed of the rise in crude. There are many market bulls hoping for prices to rise heading into the summer," said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at...

As Ann Coulter points out in the cover story of this week's HUMAN EVENTS, the Democratic Party has long pursued a strategy designed to force up the price of gasoline for American families. Part of this strategy is to maintain a moratorium on oil drilling off the East and West coasts of the United States, thus artificially limiting the domestic supply. Back in 1982, according to the Energy Information Agency, Congress enacted a moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the coast of Northern California. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush ordered the Department of Interior not to allow any...

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are looking beyond a summer gasoline tax holiday to focus on broader oil market fundamentals. Yesterday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act, which calls for a revocation of tax breaks to big oil companies, a windfall profit tax and a cap on additions to the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Included in the bill is a diktat to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] to substantially raise margin requirements for oil futures. That measure, say the bill's sponsors, would discourage excessive speculation which is blamed for fueling oil's meteoric price trajectory....

A Limbaugh Analysis of Oil Prices BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Snerdley says we have a lot of people calling about oil today. I'm getting e-mails about this, too, and there obviously is some kind of campaign out there to have oil discussed. You know, the story out there past couple of days is "experts" say that the barrel price of oil will soon hit $200 -- and this is roiling the markets, they say. Now, I want you to stop and think about something, folks. If $200-a-barrel oil leads to the pump price of $10 a gallon at the gasoline pump,...

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules. EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah. But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year...

SYNOPSIS: It also has received over $3.2 million in federal funding from the DOE to develop its 3D advanced batteries. The Peoria, Ill., startup capped off a $16 million third round of funding to continue developing and marketing its carbon and graphite foam-based battery technologies for commercial and military use. Khosla Ventures and Infield Capital, which signed on as new investors to lead the deal, were joined by Stark Capital, Caterpillar and other previous investors. Firefly, which claims its lead acid batteries are cheaper, lighter and more powerful than conventional ones, will release the Oasis battery this summer. Intended for...

RUSH: Snerdley says we have a lot of people calling about oil today. I'm getting e-mails about this, too, and there obviously is some kind of campaign out there to have oil discussed. You know, the story out there past couple of days is "experts" say that the barrel price of oil will soon hit $200 -- and this is roiling the markets, they say. Now, I want you to stop and think about something, folks. If $200-a-barrel oil leads to the pump price of $10 a gallon at the gasoline pump, let me just ask you a simple question....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With $120 oil not seeming to follow the fundamental law of supply and demand many are wondering if the market is broken. The Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates, saving Wall Street but sinking the dollar and driving up food and fuel prices. Investors, also called "speculators" by some, have been pouring money into commodities of all sorts, artificially driving prices higher in an attempt to squeak out healthy profits in the face of falling stock values. But to many, all the financial voodoo is merely a distraction. The fundamental reality of oil - and...

Exxon Mobil recently posted the biggest-ever annual profit for a U.S. company at $40.6 billion dollars. Outrageous — they gasp — consumers are obviously being gouged by Big Oil. Let’s look at the facts. First of all, just who is “Big Oil?” Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips? Wrong! It’s the government-controlled national oil companies of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Russia, Brazil, China, etc. In fact, the privately held Western oil companies that most people associate with “Big Oil” control less than 6 percent of the world’s reserves. Do these companies set the price...

Oil prices have risen 25% in the last four months and by an incredible 400% from 2001. Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti now warns that all parameters point to the occurence of a 'super-spike' past $200 in six months to two years' time. He joins OPEC's very own chief, who recently uttered the same frightening words. Murti correctly predicted three years ago - when oil was about $55 a barrel - that it would pass $100, which it reached for the first time in January of this year. Current oil prices - benchmark US light crude passing the $122...

The underlying cause of World War II was the effort by Japan and Germany to take by force of arms resources they decided they needed to fuel their economies. Both countries were dictatorships; this is important because, under modern standards of conduct, democracies probably could not go to war for this reason. Yet it is also clear that we would not be in Iraq if it were not for the fact that oil is the source of funds for the Islamic terrorists to carry out their atrocities on westerners, nor would they, without oil riches, be dreaming of restoring their...

In recent months, oil prices have become increasingly volatile, mainly driven by financial market developments and the increased flow of speculative funds into oil futures. The turmoil in some global equity markets and the considerable depreciation in the US dollar have encouraged investors to seek better returns in commodities, particularly in the crude oil futures market. This has driven prices higher. There is clearly no shortage of oil in the market. OECD commercial oil stocks remain above the five-year average, with days of forward cover at a comfortable level of more than 53 days. US crude inventories, meanwhile, rose by...

A celebrated green economy produces pollution elsewhere, ongoing power shortages, and business-crippling costs. Rancho Seco was once a nuclear plant generating over 900 megawatts of electricity; today, its solar panels produce just 4.In January 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stood before the California legislature in Sacramento and delivered his fourth State of the State address since his improbable 2003 election. It was a rhetorical tour de force that would win him widespread acclaim. “California has the ideas of Athens and the power of Sparta,” said Schwarzenegger. “Not only can we lead California into the future; we can show the nation and...

If the globaloneyists had their way, a man named Jed would still be “a poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed.” In the short span of 30 years, the Greens have cooked up massive global warming hysteria, stood in the way additional oil exploration and gasoline refinement, and refused to allow viable alternatives to oil (nuclear, coal, natural gas, etc.) to even be seriously considered. As Americans consider proposals for a national energy policy, it is important to keep in mind the words of Lincoln: “He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” For all...

In a November 26, 2005 interview with Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, Senator John McCain said, in an excess of candor, “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.” In the twenty-nine months since he made that candid admission the American people have been reminded of it repeatedly by his political opponents. The most gleeful purveyors of the McCain-doesn’t-know-anything-about-economics mantra have been, of course, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Their scoffing references to McCain’s “economic ignorance” have been such...

(L)ocal Indiana media "relentlessly hammered" Clinton's gas tax proposal -- using local economists to dismiss the merits of the plan. O'Bannon faced nowhere near the level of scrutiny and negative coverage back in 2000 (in his gubernatorial race against a Republican.)

The Truth about Oil   By Vasko Kohlmayer FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, May 08, 2008 A recent survey on the environment found that seventy percent of people worldwide think that the planet is running out oil. Only less than one quarter believe that there is enough of it to keep it as a primary source of energy. Petro pessimism runs especially high in the United States where a full two thirds think that the point of depletion is within sight. Here are some hard facts. According the Energy Information Administration as of January 2007 there was more than 1.3 trillion...

Nancy Pelosi chanted "Veto and Drill", "Veto and Drill" in caricaturing the threatened presidential veto of windfall oil company taxes and desire to drill in ANWR and elsewhere. But all that might sound, in fact, good to most Americans. With the world's largest reserves of coal, after creating the nuclear power industry ex nihilo, and with billions of oil still under our soil and waters, it makes no sense to produce less energy while blaming and taxing those who produce what we have, rather than drilling, digging, and saving, as we find ways to transition to the alternate energies. The...