Free Republic

The newspapers are suddenly full of hypothetical plans to sextuple the federal gasoline tax, with well-timed insinuations that this might be a post-election Republican ploy. On Oct. 8, The New York Times ran a story called, "Raise the Gas Tax? Funny, It Doesn't Sound Republican," citing half a dozen Republican economists and a token Democrat. On Oct. 20, The Wall Street Journal ran "Raise the Gas Tax" by former Bush adviser Greg Mankiw. As taxes go, a tax on motor fuels (including ethanol) is not one of the worst. Mankiw thus argues that, "An increased reliance on gas taxes over...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal push for cars that run on an alternative fuel straight from the heartland isn't winning many converts among American drivers - but is a hit with automakers who use it to skirt mileage standards. Five million cars across the country are equipped to run on the fuel, but almost no one uses it outside the corn belt. Fortunately for carmakers, a 1988 law designed to decrease oil use gives them credits for building vehicles that run on the alternative fuel whether anyone uses it or not. Those credits allow automakers to relax gasoline efficiency...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

HONG KONG - A notable feature of 2004 was the volatility in oil prices - New York light sweet crude prices reached a peak of US$55.67 on October 25, ending the year up 33.6% at $43.45 per barrel. While a number of supply-side and supply-chain factors have contributed to this situation, the most significant long-term factor contributing to rising oil prices is an increase in Asian demand, most notably from China. China's unprecedented growth not only makes it a driver of a long-term increase in energy prices, but also the most vulnerable to rising oil prices. China, which has been...

Washington, DC, Sep. 16 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia, long the largest supplier of oil to the United States, has cut U.S. sales dramatically and is likely no longer among the top five largest U.S. suppliers. The Saudi kingdom's new largest customer is China. "Saudi sales to the U.S. have fallen off the table," James Placke, a senior associate at Cambridge Energy Research Associates and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs said Thursday.