Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

GasBuddy Blog -- Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the official start to the U.S. driving season, refineries are finishing maintenance and other planned outages to boost production of refined products.

For thirteen consecutive weeks, total motor gasoline inventories have fallen. One would have to go back to February to find the last weekly Energy Information Administration report that showed an increase in total gasoline inventories. Much of the reason for declining inventories was due to a switch-over in the type of gasoline consumed (as required by the EPA), but also because of refining issues. Most notably, a fire at BP's Cherry Point, Washington refinery back in mid-February.

Many facilities have completed maintenance, but there...  (go to article)

Automotive News -- Word has it that this weekend the first shipments of around 350 Ford Focus Electrics got underway to 67 dealers in California, New Jersey and New York.

The decision was reportedly made Friday, and the deliveries will take place over the next two weeks with each dealer getting half a dozen cars, out of which, one will be a demo model.

This news came via insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity to Reuters, but Ford has nothing official to say about it except a general statement that, "We are still on track to begin shipping the Focus Electric this spring."

The Focus EV has been called a mere “compliance car” to help reduce the company’s fleet economy average, and Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally said last month that if they only sell 5,000 units this year, it won’t be considered a failure.  (go to article)

Rigzone -- Water and energy are inexorably interlinked, with increasing energy demands on water impacting the world's ability to meet its energy needs, said Deloitte consultants Dr. Joseph Stanislaw and William Sarni in a recent whitepaper "No water, no energy. No energy, no water".

In parallel, the need for more and more water in agricultural, industrial and domestic uses requires more energy.

"A constraint in either resource limits the other, and this nexus of supply and demand poses substantial risks for virtually every government and every type of business," said Stanislaw and Sarni.  (go to article)

bloomberg -- Crude slipped as Iran agreed to let Western nuclear inspectors into the country, easing concern that the conflict over its atomic energy program would disrupt Mideast supplies.

Prices fell as much as 1.3 percent after Yukiya Amano, secretary-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced the accord with Iran today in Vienna. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Europe’s debt crisis risks spiraling and seriously damaging the world economy
 (go to article)

Daily Ticker -- Every time oil and gas prices jump, as they have in the past year, a great cry goes up: If only America had an energy policy.

Well, we do have an "energy policy," it's just being directed by ExxonMobil (XOM), not Washington, D.C., according to Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation and author of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.

"They're closer to a consistent source of energy policy than the federal government in part because of their scale," Coll says, noting the company's roughly $450 billion in annual revenue dwarfs the annual budget of the Department of Energy, which was $27 billion in fiscal 2011.

Because of their consistent long-term strategy, Exxon has been able to "achieve their objectives much more successfully than presidents who come and go decla  (go to article)

Huffington Post -- WASHINGTON -- The Natural Resources Defense Council on Tuesday released a report dispelling the myth that the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would lower gas prices. Rather, the opposite is true, findings show.

On a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, report author and NRDC attorney Anthony Swift called the pipeline's impact on gasoline prices "one of the most misunderstood issues surrounding the proposed Keystone XL," adding that when TransCanada originally proposed the pipeline, they pitched it as a way to increase the cost of oil in the United States, providing increased revenue for Canadian producers. Since then, proponents of the pipeline in the United States have pitched it as a means of decreasing U.S. gasoline prices.

Swift's study examined these two conflicting cl  (go to article)

Ward's Auto World -- The 13.9 billion gallons (52.5 billion L) of ethanol added to the U.S. fuel supply last year reduced the price of gasoline by $1.09 a gallon, researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Iowa State University say.

The Center of Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State says regular gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon in 2011 and without the ethanol, the price would have been about $4.61.

A new report from the center says the average American household used 1,124 gallons (4,248 L) of gasoline in 2011, meaning ethanol cut the gasoline expense by more than $1,225.

“The results indicate that over the period of January 2000 to December 2011, the growth in ethanol production reduced wholesale gasoline prices by 29 cents a gallon on average across all regions,” the researchers say.  (go to article)

AP/News Observer -- WASHINGTON -- The embattled chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission resigned Monday after a tumultuous three-year tenure in which he pushed for sweeping safety reforms but came under fire for an unyielding management style that fellow commissioners and agency employees described as bullying.

Gregory Jaczko stepped down ahead of a potentially blistering report due out soon from the agency's inspector general, which has been investigating his actions for more than a year.

Jaczko, 41, led a strong response to the nuclear disaster in Japan and was a favorite of industry watchdogs, who called his emphasis on safety a refreshing change from previous agency chiefs who were close to the nuclear industry or who came from it.

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Time Magazine -- How can one driver average 37 mpg and get 575 miles per fillup, while another driver—driving the same model car—tops out at 21 mpg and 325 miles per tank? The answer is that these two drivers drive very differently.  (go to article)

Globe & Mail Toronto -- The crude oil flows thick and black, pouring like hot coffee sludge into a rail tanker on the Saskatchewan prairie.

The rails stretch past the horizon, winding their way to distant refineries in Texas and California and Pennsylvania, a network of oil-bearing steel ribbon that, in a sudden shift for Canada’s energy industry, has become an important new avenue for exporting oil.
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Clean Technica -- Aptera (a wingless bird) is an electric car company that ceased operations in December after many setbacks, but its ideas and assets have taken flight again, purchased by the Jonway Group, a Chinese company. This might be considered an auspicious omen.

For those who took notice of EV developments in the last several years, Aptera made a name for itself by promoting the idea of a light vehicle that would nevertheless be crash-worthy due to its internal structure and airbags. Its light weight combined with its extreme aerodynamic shape would mean that it would only need a small engine and would be highly efficient.  (go to article)

Washington Post -- Republicans protest that Obama hasn’t granted enough drilling permits, but that didn’t make much difference in the latest upward price movements — any more than Obama’s recent attack on oil-market “speculation” brought prices back down. Prices had started falling by the time he announced the crackdown on April 17.

Romney was, however, expressing a political truth: Both sides shamelessly use gas prices for partisan advantage. The GOP is skewering Obama during his reelection campaign, just as Democrats — then-candidate Barack Obama very much included — blamed President George W. Bush for a 2008 price spike.

What actually has been moving the price of fuel in recent months? In an April 26 post on his blog, analyst Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service pointed out that the price spi  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- With over 4 million miles of roadway, Americans are afforded exceptional freedom of mobility. Yet the mobility our nation’s highway system provides us also comes with an enormous social cost – 5.4 million crashes annually resulting in almost 33,000 fatalities on average and 2.2 million injuries, at an economic cost to society of more than $230 billion.

Every day 90 people are killed on America’s streets and highways, while more than 6,000 are injured. Unfortunately, too many state legislatures are not taking proactive steps to reduce these numbers by enacting effective and proven highway safety laws. So says the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition of insurance, consumer, health, safety and law enforcement...  (go to article)

http://www.newsminer.com -- by Jeff Richardson / jrichardson@newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — After spending the past decade studying the methane that gurgles out of Alaska lakes, Katey Walter Anthony began to see something unusual several years ago.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher noticed that “violent bubbling” at some lakes was creating patches of thawed water in late and early winter. The source of that methane, she later discovered, wasn’t from recent organic decomposition but instead from underground coal beds or petroleum reservoirs.

“That looks like something very different than I’ve seen elsewhere,” Walter Anthony said.

The reason that methane is venting to the surface, according to her team’s newly published article in the journal Nature Geoscience, is because the frozen cap covering that ground  (go to article)

Anchorage Daily News online -- PABLO GORONDI
The Associated Press

Published: May 22nd, 2012 04:17 AM
Last Modified: May 22nd, 2012 04:30 AM

The price of oil slipped to near $92 a barrel Tuesday, on concerns about global economic growth and news that that Iran will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart a probe into its nuclear program.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for June delivery was down 44 cents to $92.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.09 to settle at $92.57 in New York on Monday.

In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up 14 cents at $108.95 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Crude has slumped from $106 earlier this month on fears that global economic growth might slow more than expected this year. In Europe, government  (go to article)

USA Today -- he United States has agreed to sell unarmed surveillance drones to Iraq's navy as part of an effort to help protect that nation's oil exports amid growing tensions in the Persian Gulf and to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi ties.

"They understand the importance of the mission to protect its oil platforms," said Army Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, who heads the U.S. Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq.
The office, which operates out of the U.S. Embassy and manages U.S. military sales programs in Iraq, confirmed the sale of drones but declined to say the model or number of drones that are part of the contract.
The drones will allow Iraq's military to keep a continuous watch over its oil terminals within Iraqi territorial waters of the Persian Gulf, where a significant portion of the world's oil originates ..  (go to article)

USA Today -- Good fuel economy trumps quality, safety and overall value when it comes to considerations in buying a new car, a surprising Consumer Reports survey finds.

More than a third of consumers, some 37%, cited fuel economy as the most important consideration in buying their next car. That's more twice the next most important consideration, quality, at 17% and safety at 16%. That was followed by overall value at 14% and performance at 6%.

"These results make it clear that high fuel prices are continuing to impact driver behavior and influencing future purchase considerations," said Jeff Bartlett, Consumer Reports deputy auto editor, in a statement "While quality, safety and value are still important, this may be foreshadowing a market shift by folks seeking relief at the pump."  (go to article)

Zecco -- The weekly average prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kept falling to 107.45 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, reaching its lowest point of this year, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.

During the second half of 2011, OPEC oil price kept falling with fluctuation, dropping to 107.22 dollars a barrel in the last week of 2011.

Since the beginning of 2012, its oil price had continued to climb to 123.79 dollars a barrel on the third week of March. Subsequently, however, the OPEC oil price kept dropping, falling by more than 13 percent during the following nine weeks.

Last week, the unfavorable economic situation especially the increasing concerns about the European debt crisis remained as the major factor causing a drop in oil price.

 (go to article)

Clean Technica -- Republicans on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee have decided that the military’s push for clean, renewable energy has gone far enough, and have proposed for next year’s budget that the Pentagon not spend a dime on renewable energy sources that cost more than traditional dirty energy.

This news comes on the heels of the Navy’s announcement of their new “Great Green Fleet,” which features an aircraft carrier and strike group that are all powered by renewable, cleaner energy sources.

The shift in policy came from the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California Republican Howard “Buck” McKeon. Republicans on the committee complain that the fuel being used for the “green fleet” and other military renewable energy projects is too costly.  (go to article)

Renewable Energy World -- Greenpeace advocates gathered outside of Apple's Cupertino headquarters early this week dressed as iPhones and iPods, declaring their outrage about the company's lack of clean energy use. They projected social media messages from supporters on the side of the building:

“Be part of the next century, not the last.”

“Clean our cloud!”

This protest is just a small part of what Greenpeace has been campaigning for months: How Clean is Your Cloud? According to its report, most major tech companies rely on coal to power their data centers and manufacturing – Apple scored a “D” on its renewable score sheet, while Google and Yahoo led the clean energy movement in the sector, scoring an "A" and "B" respectively, in both usage and policy support.  (go to article)

Reuters and CNBC.com -- Oil prices fell below $109 a barrel on Tuesday as hopes for a cooperation deal over Iran's disputed nuclear program eased concerns about major oil supply disruptions and as a report predicted more misery for the euro zone.

The United Nations nuclear agency chief said on Tuesday he expected to sign a cooperation deal with Iran "quite soon".

"A decision was made to conclude and sign the agreement... I can say it will be signed quite soon," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters at Vienna airport after returning from Tehran where he held talks with senior Iranian officials.

London Brent crude [LCON2 109.21 0.40 (+0.37%) ] oil prices reversed their earlier gains to trade 37 cents down at $108.44 a barrel and U.S. light  (go to article)

AFP -- Oil recoiled Tuesday, hit by profit-taking and the stronger dollar on the eve of an informal meeting in Brussels where the eurozone's crippling sovereign debt crisis will top of the agenda.

Financial markets were also under pressure after Fitch slashed Japan's credit rating by two notches on Tuesday, citing its "leisurely" efforts at shrinking a massive public debt.

In London afternoon deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in July slid 50 cents to $108.31 a barrel.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for June dropped 52 cents to $92.05 a barrel.

The market had surged on Monday, rebounding from last week's multi-month lows on speculative buying and as concerns resurfaced over Iran.

"Crude oil prices gave back early gains and slid lower on Tuesday  (go to article)

USA Today -- Traffic congestion dropped 30% last year from 2010 in the USA's 100 largest metropolitan areas, driven largely by higher gas prices and a spotty economic recovery, according to a new study by a Washington-state firm that tracks traffic flows.

That was the largest drop since the nation plunged into recession in December 2007.

Of the 100 most populous metro areas, 70 saw declines in traffic congestion while just 30 had increases, says Jim Bak, co-author of the 2011 U.S. Traffic Scorecard for Kirkland, Wash.-based INRIX.

That was a reversal of what happened in 2010, when 70 had increases in congestion and 30 had declines. Tampa had the biggest increase in congestion, and Minneapolis the biggest drop.  (go to article)

24/7 Wall St -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the government of Iran have agreed to a new inspection plan that gives the IAEA access to previously closed Iranian nuclear development facilities. The agreement was reached yesterday according to a report from Bloomberg News, just two days before a meeting in Baghdad that will include Iran and the so-called ‘P5+1’ — the US, the UK, Russia, China, Germany, and France — w
ith the goal of reaching a negotiated deal on Iran’s nuclear development program that would allow the easing of sanctions on Iran.Now that Iran has agreed to inspections by the IAEA, an agreement at the Baghdad meeting is far more likely. If the Baghdad meeting results in a further agreement between Iran and the P5+1, crude prices could fall another $5/barrel, perhaps even  (go to article)

Bloomburg -- Discoveries of unconventional oil and gas reserves in the western hemisphere will not only reduce price and supply volatility, but will also bring the end of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Roger Altman wrote in the Financial Times.

Technology has revolutionized energy supply with the result that the U.S. now has a 100-year supply of natural gas, and oil production is projected to rise sharply, meaning that within 20 years, production could match consumption in the western world for the first time since 1952, Altman, chairman of Evercore Partners (EVR) and a former U.S. deputy Treasury secretary wrote.
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Seeking Alpha -- The price of natural gas is hitting all-time lows recently after the use of fracking has allowed energy companies with a stake in natural gas such as Apache (APA), EOG Resources (EOG), and Exxon Mobil (XOM) to acquire greater volumes of natural gas with less cost. Fracking is a method that releases gases from shale rocks through hydraulic fracturing. The amount of natural gas reserves in the U.S. and worldwide are seemingly limitless now thanks to these somewhat recent technological advances.

The chart below shows the increasing amounts of natural gas reserves in the U.S. over a 30 year span, it can be found here.
With the price of energy declining rapidly, partially due to this fall natural gas prices and due to a milder winter where should investors look? Fracking involves pressuring  (go to article)

PR Newswire --
Step aside chocolates and oysters, a new survey reveals the car may be our new aphrodisiac. More than one in three Canadians (36 per cent), including almost 40 per cent of women and close to 50 per cent of young Canadians under 35 report driving a sexy car makes them feel more attractive.

Findings from the new study were released today, and came from The CarCourting Report, commissioned by autoTRADER.ca and conducted among Angus Reid Forum panel members across Canada.  (go to article)

Los Angeles Times -- Fuel economy is the top feature buyers consider when shopping for a new car, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports.

The magazine, an influential force on car buying choices, said that 37% of the respondents in an April telephone survey listed fuel economy as their top consideration when shopping for a new car. Quality was a distant second at 17% followed by safety at 16%, value at 14% and performance at just 6%.

“These results make it clear that high fuel prices are continuing to impact driver behavior and influencing future purchase considerations,” said Jeff Bartlett, Consumer Reports' deputy auto editor. “While quality, safety and value are still important, this may be foreshadowing a market shift by folks seeking relief at the pump.”  (go to article)

Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance -- Brent crude slipped in London after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development trimmed economic growth forecasts, and Iran agreed to let western nuclear inspectors into the country.

The OECD today said Europe's debt crisis risks spiraling and seriously damaging the world economy, which would hamper demand for fuels. Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency reached an agreement on nuclear inspections and will sign it in the next days in Iran, the IAEA's Secretary-General Yukiya Amano said today in Vienna.

"The macro environment has clearly worsened, and we'd expect energy prices to be broadly lower over the next month." said Guy Wolf, a macro strategist at brokers Marex Spectron in London. "Europe is the main factor that can drive oil prices, and a eurozone breakup  (go to article)

Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance -- Chad Porter wants to run his 18- wheeler trucks on frozen natural gas along a highway that crosses Canada's Rocky mountains even before the world's longest chain of refueling stations gets built to keep them fueled.

The chief operating officer of oil services company Ferus Inc. bought two vehicles to test liquefied natural gas and reckons switching from diesel may cut 22 percent from his fuel bill, or about $1 a gallon. At the moment, Calgary-based Ferus uses mobile tankers to refuel his trucks, which cost about C$100,000 ($99,000) more than conventional vehicles, adding expense to a project that's about saving money. A Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) project will make it easier to fill up.

Shell's plan to spend $250 million on an LNG plant and a string of filling stations is the biggest...  (go to article)

NJ.COM -- No greater fraud has ever been inflicted on the motoring public than ethanol.

Ethanol exists as a motor fuel only because the agribusiness lobby has bought a bunch of congressmen as well as a bunch of environmentalists to promote the idea that it is a sound alternative to gasoline.

It's not. Ethanol costs more than gas but has only two-thirds of the energy per unit of volume.

The lobby is in the process of buying enough votes in Congress to force us to use E-15, a fuel in which there is only 85 percent gasoline.

On Sunday the New York Times carried this article showing the harm that can be done to engines by E-85:

either the Environmental Protection Agency was hasty in authorizing the sale of the fuel blend or the study’s authors produced “junk science,”  (go to article)

MLIVE -- STERLING HEIGHTS, MI- Law enforcement, the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning and General Motors Co. officials launched the state’s annual “Click It or Ticket” enforcement campaign today in Metro Detroit.

The federally funded campaign – focused on increasing safety belt usage through increased enforcement – runs for two weeks through June 3. During the annual campaign, which started in 2000, there will be extra patrols for about 160 law enforcement agencies in 26 counties throughout Michigan.  (go to article)

Boston Globe -- William I. Koch, the Osterville summer resident and fossil fuel magnate who helped bankroll the opposition to the Cape Wind energy project, has emerged as a key backer of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, donating $2 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney’s drive for the White House.

The donations rank Koch’s privately held Oxbow Corp. third among companies that have donated the most to Restore Our Future, behind Perry Homes, the Texas home-building company, and Bain Capital, the Boston private equity firm that Romney cofounded in 1984.

Brad Goldstein, Koch’s spokesman, said Koch is supporting Romney because of a personal relationship that dates to the early 1980s, when Romney was running Bain Capital and Koch was living full time in Massachusetts, and also bec  (go to article)

LA Times -- A gardener for the city of Los Angeles has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement for allegedly selling thousands of dollars of city-owned gasoline on the black market.

Michael Lee, a 12-year veteran of the Recreation and Parks Department, was arrested Monday along with another man who police say worked with him to steal the fuel. According to police, the pair was detained after officers watched Lee fill up portable gas cans at a city fueling site in South Los Angeles and transfer the cans into a private vehicle several blocks away.

Police say the suspect and his alleged accomplice, Shane Gansterer, stole at least 800 gallons of fuel over the last three months, although the theft may have started some time before then. A third man, who was not identified, was briefly detained but  (go to article)

The daily Ticker -- Prices at the pump have fallen 6.19 cents per gallon in the past two weeks and are down more than 12 cents from the year-to-date high in early April according to the latest Lundberg Survey that tracks 2,500 stations across the country. The decline in gasoline prices mirrors the slump in U.S. oil prices, which are off 12.5 percent since May 1.

Oil broke its six-day losing streak on Monday, gaining half a percent after China vowed it would do more to boost domestic economic growth and Goldman Sachs released a report that said oil supplies are "increasingly constrained" because Iranian exports have fallen.

Energy prices climbed in late 2011 and early 2012 as tensions between the West and Iran flared over Iran's nuclear energy program and talks of a military strike against Iran's facilitie  (go to article)

Wired -- California Senate Bill 1298 passed the State Senate today in a unanimous, bipartisan vote of 37-0, paving the way for safety and performance standards that cover autonomous vehicles operating on the state’s roads and highways.

The bill, authored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), is on its way to the State Assembly for consideration, and it’s expected to pass within the next month.

“Thousands of Californians tragically die in auto accidents each year,” Padilla said after the bill’s passage. “The vast majority of these collisions are due to human error. Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle can analyze the driving environment more quickly and accurately and can operate the vehicle more safely.”  (go to article)

Forbes -- It doesn’t take a market research maven to determine that with gas prices still hovering around the $4.00 mark, fuel economy remains of paramount importance among new-car buyers. But what if your vehicular preferences run more toward the fast and the furious – can a true sports car be both entertaining to drive and fuel efficient?

The answer, surprisingly, is yes.

While the sports car market is still populated with plenty of gas-guzzlers, there are a number of models – some of which are among the quickest rides on the road – that boast downright decent fuel economy.

And while it could be said that anyone who’s able to afford a costly sports car could well absorb sky-high gasoline prices, consider the environmental effects of choosing a “greener” alternative. According to the EPA’s figur  (go to article)

TribLive -- Greensburg Salem senior Parker Jorgensen, who wants to become an engineer, learned on Monday about the wide range of opportunities in the energy sector for those in his prospective field, especially with the boom in the region's natural gas industry.

"There are so many areas to get into," Jorgensen said at Keytex Energy Inc.'s scholar award and energy awareness day at the company's headquarters in Salem.

Jorgensen, a Greensburg resident who plans to attend Penn State this fall, was joined by about 10 students and teachers from the Derry Area, Greater Latrobe, Hempfield Area, Kiski Area, Mt. Pleasant Area and Yough high schools in learning about career opportunities in the energy field.

Thanks to the boom in the exploration and production of natural gas in the state's Marcellus shale  (go to article)

reuters -- U.S. safety regulators are trying to determine the cause of a Texas garage fire that destroyed three vehicles, including a luxury plug-in sports car built by Fisker Automotive.

The Fisker Karma, which sells for more than $100,000, was parked in the garage of a newly built home in Sugar Land, Texas, when the fire broke out earlier this month.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent investigators to inspect the site, but has not yet opened a formal investigation.

"NHTSA is working with local authorities to evaluate whether there are any potential safety implications and will continue to monitor the situation," the safety agency said in a statement.

A statement from Fisker said NHTSA officials went to Texas to conduct a routine "field inquiry" into the cause of the fire.

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gainsvilleTimes -- If there was ever a sign to take a vacation, this might be it — gas prices have fallen just in time for the holiday weekend.

“I would expect that the slow decline we’ve seen in the last few weeks will continue through Memorial Day and perhaps longer,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. “I would think that for much of the summer average gas prices in Georgia would be between $3.25 and $3.75.”

National gas prices have been dropping since a $3.93 peak in early April, according to AAA’s Historical Fuel Gauge Report.

Average prices in Georgia are 7 cents lower than a week ago and 38 cents lower than the same time last year.

The well-timed drop in prices could mean more people will be hitting the road this weekend.  (go to article)

The Washington Post -- The 389-cubic-inch overhead-cam V-8 holds a sweet spot in many aging hearts, but their grandchildren are more likely to lust after a 1-terabyte hard drive streaming video to a high-resolution screen. ¶ “Today, it’s not the most critical thing in the world to have the most exciting car,” said Jim Wangers, 85, known as “the godfather” of the Pontiac GTO, which helped define the muscle car era. “In the 1960s it was absolutely mandatory that you had a swinging set of wheels. Now, personal mobility has been replaced by personal mobility on the Web.” ¶ America’s fabled love affair with the car hasn’t ended, but like many a romance that gets off to a smoking-hot start, it has evolved over the years into more placid coexistence rooted more in need than pleasure. ¶ There are a multitude of reasons:  (go to article)

Boston.com -- State may require reviews of impact before construction

Days after state environmental officials found unacceptable noise levels from wind turbines in Falmouth, they are considering new regulations that would require the state to review potential noise issues before wind turbines are built in Massachusetts.

The state might also conduct sound studies in other communities, such as Fairhaven and Kingston, where residents, as in Falmouth, have complained about newly installed turbines, officials said.  (go to article)

ontario goverment -- Fuel Tax

If you operate an internal combustion engine that uses clear diesel fuel, you will pay fuel tax when the fuel is purchased.

Gasoline, aviation fuel and propane are taxed under the Gasoline Tax Act.
Who has to pay the fuel tax?

In most cases, if you buy clear fuel for an internal combustion engine, you will pay fuel tax.

The only exemptions are:

Businesses that hold a Fuel Acquisition Permit
Members of the diplomatic corps
Visiting armed forces

Will I pay fuel tax on coloured fuel?

You do not have to pay fuel tax on coloured (red) fuel when the fuel is used for any of the following:

heating, lighting or cooking;
generating electricity;
unlicensed construction, forestry, mining, farm and other business equipment;
operating commercial marine vessel  (go to article)

Fox News -- "I'm gonna get rid of dem taxes 'n stuff," said candidate Romney at a rally in Greenville, SC today "and make sure every one of us gets some guns," he added. "Nobody needs to pay taxes, least of all me," Mr. Romney continued, "so by eliminating all taxes, social programs, and any part of the federal budget not related to the Department of Defense, I'll drop gas prices to what they should be in the good ol' U S of A."
Literally dozens of paid supporters cheered in a muted manner, as their contract dictated.  (go to article)

LA Yimes -- SACRAMENTO — Nearly a year after a Kern County oil worker was sucked underground and boiled to death, state authorities have turned to the two leading oil companies involved in the incident to investigate it.

On Monday, the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources released a report outlining the circumstances of the worker's death, and subsequent oil spills and eruptions, in a field where Chevron and another operator were using steam extraction. The technique causes a rush of steam to fracture and heat the ground to loosen deposits of crude.

The regulators listed possible causes of the accident, including damaged well casings and instability caused by previous steam injection. They also found that on-site meters had recorded ground movement in the area four times during the week  (go to article)

msnbc.com -- WASHINGTON, March 4, 2003 — Oil drilling on Alaska’s North Slope has disturbed some endangered species and made whaling harder, but it has not caused significant oil spills or a large decline in caribou, a scientific panel said Tuesday in a report requested by Congress.

The National Academy of Sciences panel said that development of the area since 1968 has produced large social and economic effects — some positive, such as better schools and health care, and some negative, like increased diabetes and alcoholism.
It said the environmental effects continue to grow despite efforts by the oil industry and regulators to minimize them, including new technologies that have reduced off-road travel and made drilling platforms smaller.
The report, an 18-month effort costing $1.5 million, offers th  (go to article)

Environment News Servic -- WASHINGTON, DC, May 21, 2012 (ENS) - Leaders of the world's most developed economies, the Group of Eight, have agreed to phase out government subsidies for coal, oil and gas and pursue sustainable energy and low carbon policies "in order to tackle the global challenge of climate change."

Hosted by President Barack Obama at the presidential retreat Camp David in the Maryland woods near Washington, DC, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union met on Friday night and continued working through Saturday, issuing a declaration on Saturday night.

As the G-8 meeting concluded, President Obama said, "We discussed the importance of pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy for energy security in a safe and sustainable way."
 (go to article)

Huffington Post -- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Environmental advocates were among dozens of witnesses lining up to testify Monday on a bill laying out Ohio's new regulations for horizontal shale drilling and the use of renewable energy.

The testimony before the House Public Utilities Committee was part of a debate on a wide-ranging energy bill that passed the Ohio Senate last week with support of Republicans and some Democrats.

Concern remains among environmental groups.

The bill requires that well operators disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, a technique that involves the high-pressure injection of water and chemicals into the ground to split rock apart and release natural gas or oil. Environmentalists say details will be scant, however, and reporting will come only after wells have been drilled.
 (go to article)

Anchorage Daily News online -- SANDY SHORE
The Associated Press

Published: May 21st, 2012 12:06 PM
Last Modified: May 21st, 2012 12:15 PM

Oil prices rose as encouraging signs about the economy in the United States and China tempered concerns about Greece's debt crisis.

Benchmark oil rose $1.09 to finish at $92.57 per barrel Monday in New York. Brent crude increased $1.67 to $108.81 per barrel in London.

It was a rare bright day for oil in May, which is down almost 12 percent this month on concerns about slowing global economic conditions.

Two developments raised expectations that oil demand may improve in the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies.

A survey by the National Association of Business Economists released Monday showed economists are slightly more optimistic about a recovery in the  (go to article)

Anchorage Daily News online -- The Associated Press

Published: May 21st, 2012 12:32 PM
Last Modified: May 21st, 2012 12:45 PM

NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices rose Monday as encouraging signs about the economy in the United States and China tempered concerns about Greece's debt crisis. Here's how energy contracts traded.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange:

Benchmark crude rose $1.09 to finish at $92.57 per barrel.

Gasoline rose 5.06 cents to end at $2.9401 per gallon.

Heating oil rose 3.03 cents to finish at $2.8603 a gallon.

Natural gas fell 13.3 cents to end at $2.609 per 1,000 cubic feet.

On the ICE Futures exchange in London:

Brent crude rose $1.67 to finish the day at $108.81 per barrel.  (go to article)

Calgary Herald -- EDMONTON - The movement to ship Alberta bitumen to Canada’s eastern provinces is gathering momentum as plans to build the Gateway and Keystone lines languish in political limbo.

Major industry players, politicians and high-profile advocates are starting to pay serious attention to the idea, which could see bitumen piped from the oilsands through Ontario, Quebec and eventually to ports on the East Coast.

Advocates say shipping Alberta bitumen east could be a nation-building exercise, uniting Canadians around the oilsands by creating jobs across the country.

They say upgrading and refining the oil in Canada ensures Canadians reap the rewards of value-added work, and that using Canadian oil in Canada increases the country’s energy independence.  (go to article)