US Government Numb to Fuel Economy Issues

From the New York Times, comes this long and shocking story about the state of conservation efforts within the government.
According to the article, the EPA was granted the authority to impose efficiency requirements on automobiles by a Supreme Court decision that the Clean Air Act applies to carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA, acting on this [...]

Oxfam: Biofuels have dragged 30 million people into poverty

BBC
What arguments are left for biofuels? A help to a domestic industry at the expense of the world? A small addition to total world energy production? A step towards miracle ethanol that can be made from anything? Oxfam has now refuted a principal argument in favor of “green” fuels.

A Voice of Reason?

Every once in a while, someone in power will say something vaguely sensible about the state of our world. Unfortunately, they will often turn around and ruin it right afterwards. That is precisely what US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman did this week, according to another CNN article on an oil price discussion in Saudia Arabia [...]

Is Cheap Oil a Right?

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of spending some time with my family. We were discussing the normal topics; school, upcoming trips, furniture, work, health, but it was only a matter of time before the issue of gas prices came up. As expected, my mother took the opportunity go against every Economics [...]

Leading Oil Exporter Fails to Understand Oil Market

Via CNN, there comes word that the Saudis do not think there is any reason to worry about supply and demand of oil. The price increase, supposedly is attributable to speculators and weaker currencies:
“The supply and demand of oil around the world is ‘normal,’ a key adviser to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said Friday, pointing [...]

New Biofuel Options

There were two stories in The Times of London this week about organisms that secrete a chemical almost identical to crude oil. As is to be expected, these are not exactly going to drop the price of oil tomorrow. They are more promising than diverting food supplies to our gas tanks, and lack some of [...]

China to raise price of fuel

A few weeks ago we discussed the possibility of more demand destruction as a result of India raising fuel prices by 10%.
Now, we see an unexpected 18% rise in the price of fuel in China. With the two largest countries in the world cutting fuel subsidies, it is likely that we will see demand [...]

Why reserve estimates are an irrelevant statistic – Outer Continental Shelf

The United States Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has been in the news lately as George Bush and John McCain have both called for the exploration of this area in order to boost petroleum and natural gas production. Proponents of the exploration often cite reserve estimates of roughly 18 billion barrels as a reason to [...]

Free trade policies claiming Haiti as a victim

After seeing food riots in April, Haiti’s problems are nowhere near being solved. Completely dependent on food imports due to trade liberalization, soil erosion and an increasing population. Mike Williams of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution explored this issue a little deeper.
It’s not completely fair to blame free trade policies for the problems facing Haiti [...]

Exxon-Mobil Selling Fueling Stations

CNN
This is yet another nail in the coffin of the conspiracy theory of price-gouging service stations being responsible for high gas prices. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, CNN seems to cling to this naive notion, as is evident in the following sentence: “Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to sell its company-owned gas [...]