July 3, 2008
The Wall Street Journal’s Buzzwatch blog looks at 50 Things Being Blamed on Rising Oil Prices, gathering together newspaper reporting that links high oil prices to cutbacks in school field trips, airline layoffs, the rising price of tires, gas theft, and on and on… Meanwhile, the cover story of the latest issue of the New...
June 24, 2008
A Christian Science Monitor op-ed on the biofuels debate over using land set aside for conservation purposes to grow crops used for biofuel production instead. [Biofuels put bucks over ducks] A Wall Street Journal editorial on speculation in energy markets. [Political Speculators] A MarketWatch article on yesterday’s...
June 24, 2008
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced last week that it has approved a permit for Marathon Oil Corp. to begin a $1.9 billion expansion of a Detroit refinery. Marathon agreed to install, operate, and maintain at least four air monitoring stations located in and around the refinery to chart emissions. Marathon plans to...
June 24, 2008
Keith Collins, former chief economist for the Department of Agriculture (he stepped down in January 2008), has waded into the ethanol food-versus-fuel debate with a new report commissioned by Kraft Foods Global, Inc. The report is titled “The Role of Biofuels and Other Factors in Increasing Farm and Food Prices: A Review of Recent...
June 23, 2008
According to an article in the New York Times on Saturday, the Bush administration may allow farmers to plant crops on millions of acres of conservation land to offset the four million acres of land washed out by the recent floods in the Midwest. Senator Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) is pushing the White House to approve the plan. At the...
June 23, 2008
Republican presidential nominee John McCain sees building a more energy-efficient car battery as central to reducing U.S. energy consumption. He announced Monday that, as president, he would establish a $300 million prize for anyone who creates a battery that can be used with plug-in hybrid car, the type of cars U.S. automakers...
June 23, 2008
The New York Times today looks at Senator Barack Obama’s support for the domestic production of ethanol, an alternative fuel that has come under fire recently amid global speculation that turning crops into fuel is connected to rising food prices. The article contrasts Obama’s pro-ethanol position to Republican nominee John...
June 19, 2008
This week, Republican presidential nominee John McCain ventured to Houston, the Oil Capital of America, to lay out his proposed energy policy. When it comes to domestic oil production — drilling — McCain told the audience, “We do have resources, and we do have a choice.” He called for lifting the federal...
June 18, 2008
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received applications to build fifteen new reactors in eight states. Later this year, existing plants in seven other states plan to seek permits for a dozen more reactors. The first could be built and operating by 2016, according to an AP article. Meanwhile, at a public meeting...
June 17, 2008
Soaring prices for coal mean higher tax revenues for state and local government — good news for small communities, as Bill Byrd of the Times West Virginian notes: Open this summer after being closed for eight years, Fairmont’s 12th Street pool is a long way from India or China. But demand for coal in the global energy market...