Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Democracy Now -- For years some climate scientists have been warning of a link between stronger tornadoes and climate change.

"It is irresponsible not to mention climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in 2011 after a series of large tornadoes. "The environment in which all of these storms and the tornadoes are occurring has changed from human influences."
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ABC NEWS -- It’s almost Memorial Day and the price of driving for the first holiday weekend of the summer just got a bit higher.

The weekly average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.67, up 7 cents from a week earlier, according to the Department of Energy.

Minnesota is ground zero for the high prices with a record high of $4.28, a rise of 44 cents in the just the last week, according to AAA. Other Midwestern states and the Rockies also saw spikes because of refinery outages due to planned maintenance and some unplanned problems

This price rise can significantly increase the price of a summer trip. Filling up your gas tank for a drive from Minneapolis to the Grand Canyon could cost up to $200 more today than it would have a month ago.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- Automakers support a proposed free trade deal between the United States and European Union, and want auto safety regulations harmonized on both sides of the Atlantic.

Vehicle and auto parts trade between Europe and the United States was $57 billion in 2012, accounting for 9 percent of the total $646 billion in U.S.-EU trade.
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The Tennesseeian -- Troubles at several oil refineries are driving gasoline prices sharply higher in the Midwest, and the regional shortages are expected to boost pump prices nationwide.

While the U.S. may be drenched in newfound crude oil deposits, and early May supplies were at their highest levels since the early 1930s, issues at a handful of refineries that turn crude into gasoline and diesel fuel underscore how kinks in the supply chain can cause quick surges in what consumers pay at the pump.

Gas prices in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have jumped up to 27 cents a gallon in the past week alone.

Behind the rise: Outages and extended maintenance has curbed output at refineries in Joliet, Ill.; Whiting, Ind.; Tulsa, Okla.; and El Dorado  (go to article)

Catholic Online -- The device is sure to make waiting around for your cell phone to recharge a thing of the past, In addition, the gizmo packs more energy into a smaller space than traditional phone batteries -- and holds the charge for longer.

Khare traveled from her California home to Phoenix last week for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where her invention was honored as one of two winners of Young Scientist Awards.

\"I\'m in a daze. I can\'t believe this happened,\" Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in Saratoga, she told reporters.

Khare has only used her supercapacitor to power a light-emitting diode or LED. She envisions a bright future that one day will see her invention powering cell phones, cars and any gadget that requires a rechargeable battery.  (go to article)

WOOD TV 8 -- Palisades to replace water tank bottom
Nuclear plant has been shut down since May 5

Updated: Monday, 20 May 2013, 7:10 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 20 May 2013, 7:02 PM EDT

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Palisades nuclear power plant will completely replace the bottom of a leaky 300,000-gallon water tank that has been responsible for several shutdowns since late 2011.

The Covert Township plant most recently shut down on May 5 when a crack in the tank allowed 79 gallons of "slightly radioactive water" to flow in to a pond that feeds directly into Lake Michigan. There was no public health threat.

Monday, the plant said it would completely replace the tank bottom and reconstitute the tank's subflooring. Plant spokeswoman Lindsay Rose said in a statement that "by replacing the tank bottom,  (go to article)

LA Times -- Monday’s morning commute started off horribly for drivers in the San Gabriel Valley when a big rig carrying fruit overturned on the 210, blocking lanes in both directions in Monrovia for most of the morning.

The big rig crashed through the center divider just before 5 a.m. near Myrtle Avenue. Three westbound lanes and two eastbound lanes will be blocked until about 9:15 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.

Westbound traffic appeared to be backed up to the 605 freeway.  (go to article)

fox -- Way back on May 20, 1899, taxi driver Jacob German was caught doing a heady 12 mph down Lexington Street in Manhattan. Caught both figureatively and literally, as a bicycle-mounted police officer clocked Mr German at the illegal speed and set off in pursuit.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/05/20/first-us-speeder-caught-on-this-date-in-18/?intcmp=features#ixzz2Trzk7deQ  (go to article)

Enbridge -- Clean-up operations continued Monday in response to a crude oil release May 18 from a storage tank fill line within the Enbridge Pipelines (Ozark) L.L.C.’s Cushing South Terminal in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. An estimated 2,500 barrels of WTI-grade crude oil was released and held within the terminal containment structures. The failed tank fill line and associated tank were isolated soon after the release was reported, stopping any further release of oil.

As of Monday morning, more than 2,400 barrels of oil and water have been recovered from the south terminal containment system. Enbridge and environmental contractors are continuing clean-up operations on a 24-hour schedule. Investigation of the cause of the tank fill line failure continues and a repair plan is being developed.  (go to article)

Energy Business Review -- US-based Paradigm Midstream has announced its plans to construct a crude oil pipeline in Bakken Shale oil formation in Williston basin and parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan.

Construction of the new 12in multi market pipeline with a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day is expected to begin in late 2012 and become operational in 2014.

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Scranton Times-Tribune -- Researchers in the Rice University chemistry professor's laboratory have developed nanoparticles that will flow with the fluid used to hydraulically fracture oil and gas wells, slip through rocks and travel wherever the water ends up - in a holding pond at the surface, a tanker on the highway or, in a worst-case scenario, a nearby drinking water well.

The particles, which can bear unique magnetic signatures tailored to each fracking company that uses them, have the potential to clarify the troubled debate over whether and how oil and gas extraction damages water supplies.  (go to article)

commercial carrier journal -- On May 16, the Democrat governor signed the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act, which will invests an annual $800 million in highway and transit projects. On July 2, a sales tax rate on motor fuels will start at 1 percent. In 2015, it will increase to 2 percent that January and 3 percent that July, according to the Maryland Motor Truck Association

If Congress passes legislation permitting states to collect sales tax from Internet purchases, the sales tax will remain at 3 percent. However, if Congress does not approve this measure, motor fuel tax will increase during 2016 to 4 percent in January and 5 percent in July.  (go to article)

Detroit Free Press -- AAA Michigan says gasoline prices have risen about 10 cents during the past week to a statewide average of about $3.88 per gallon. Michigan joins the rest of the country in reporting price jumps in the past week. The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.66 nationally. Of the cities surveyed in the lower 48 states, Tucson, Ariz., has the nation’s lowest average price for gas at $3.18. Minneapolis, where prices have jumped 62 cents a gallon in two weeks, has the highest at $4.27, Lundberg said. The Lundberg Survey blamed the higher prices on outages at refineries in the Midwest and West Coast. The auto club says today the Michigan average is about 13 cents per gallon more than last year at this time.  (go to article)

The Charlotte Observer -- A second Charlotte-area state representative on Sunday announced his opposition to planned Interstate 77 toll lanes.

“When you’re driving down a road that you already paid for, you shouldn’t be taxed again with a toll,” State Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, told members of Widen I-77, a Lake Norman-area citizens group fighting North Carolina's $550 million toll road plan. The project calls for a private contractor to design, build and operate toll lanes from the Brookshire Freeway in Charlotte to I-77 Exit 36 in Mooresville.

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GasBuddy Blog -- It's one thing to hear it from 'Big Oil' companies, public relations firms and others with vested interests. It's something else entirely when the International Energy Agency (IEA) bluntly says the energy boom in the U.S. will 'displace OPEC as the driver of (oil) supply growth.'

North America will provide 40 percent of new supplies to 2018 through the development of light, tight oil and oil sands, while the contribution from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will slip to 30 percent, according to the IEA.

"The supply shock created by a surge in North American oil production will be as transformative to the market over the next five years as was the rise of Chinese demand over the last 15,” the Paris...  (go to article)

Motley Fool -- The mandated blending of ethanol in motor fuel -- specifically when produced from corn -- is a highly controversial issue. Is it really corrosive to engines at concentrations of just 10%? What about 15% blends?

...

It doesn't have to be so complicated. Controversy aside, there is one calculation that can bring everyone together to support ethanol. The calculation is so simple that you can do it on the back of a napkin. What if I told you that simply blending ethanol into motor gasoline saved the United States $50 billion in 2012?

...

In 2012, Americans consumed 134 billion gallons of gasoline that contained approximately 13 billion gallons of ethanol (a blend rate of 9.7%), .. we can say that ethanol blending displaced 8.7 billion gallons of gasoline last year.  (go to article)

LA Times -- Apparently, location, location, location is the latest twist on electric vehicles and the environment: Whether an electric car such as the Nissan Leaf protects the atmosphere from greenhouse gases depends on where it's charged, according to a new study. Such a car is no better than a standard gasoline-powered subcompact such as a Hyundai Elantra in cities such as Denver and Wichita, but far exceeds even the best hybrids in Southern California.
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NBC News -- The state draws water from the Missouri River and aquifers for its hydraulic fracturing, the process also known as fracking and the key that has unlocked America's abundant shale deposits. The process is water-intensive and requires more than 2 million gallons of water per well, equal to baths for some 40,000 people.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- West Texas Intermediate crude fell for the first time in four days on speculation that prices climbed more than justified last week.

Futures declined as much as 0.8 percent in New York as U.S. equity indexes were little changed after advancing for four straight weeks. Oil futures and equities surged last week on signs that U.S. economic growth will accelerate, bolstering demand for fuel.

“Crude oil and other risk assets were a little overcooked,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York. “The rally in equities and oil at the end of the week isn’t sustainable.”

WTI oil for June delivery fell 51 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $95.51 a barrel at 9:17 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose 86 cents to $96.02 on May 17, th  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- NEW YORK--Oil futures fell slightly in thin trading Monday as traders weighed the recent rally in the stock market against high inventories and weak oil demand. Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell 31 cents, or 0.3%, to $95.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on ICE Futures Europe slipped 28 cents, or 0.3%, to $104.36 a barrel. Monday's decline halted a three-session climb in oil prices, driven largely by a surge in the stock market that has boosted broader investor sentiment and lifted expectations of an improving U.S. economy. On Monday, U.S. stocks retreated slightly. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was recently down 0.1% at 1666.34, after posting a 2.1% climb last week on a string of better-than-expected quarterly earnings reports. "Oil got caught up in  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- It's been a perilous week for motorists in the nation's midsection as gasoline prices have soared. There's good news: relief may soon be on the way.

Spot gasoline prices, which have a strong and direct impact on retail prices, have seemingly begun to move lower. As spot prices move lower, the decreases are passed on to wholesale channels, and finally, allow gas stations to drop their retail prices several days later.

But it all comes too late, as many areas have set all time record highs for gasoline prices. Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma have all seen new statewide record high averages in the last week. Cities breaking their all time highs include Des Moines, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Fargo, Oklahoma City, Sioux...  (go to article)

Fuelfix.com -- SCRANTON, Pa. — Oil and gas development damaged the water supplies of at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012  (go to article)

Associated Press -- North Dakota's congressional delegation doesn't like a proposed new rule that would require energy companies on federal lands to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking involves pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to break open rocks and allow oil and gas to flow. Critics fear it causes environmental harm.

Sen. John Hoeven says the proposed rule will add “a new layer of regulation and bureaucracy.” He says a better approach is to let states regulate energy development within their borders.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp also believes the rule will cause delays and frustrations in permitting and drilling on federal lands, though she says it's a step in the right direction.

 (go to article)

NPR -- Tesla Motors, the American maker of luxury electric cars, has been riding a wave of good publicity.

Its Model S sedan (base priced at $62,400, after federal tax credits) was just named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Reviewers at Consumer Reports gave the lithium-ion battery powered vehicle a rave.

And the company, headed by billionaire innovator Elon Musk, 41, posted a profit for the first time in its 10-year history — powered in part by zero-emission environmental credits.

But Tesla also finds itself, and its business model, under sustained attack by a formidable foe: the National Automobile Dealers Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington with a strong network of state chapters.
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USA Today -- Toyota is planning a giant increase in production of lithium ion batteries as prepares to use them in its flagship Prius sedan.

Toyota plans a six-fold boost in it use of the batteries, which are substantially lighter and more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride batteries it uses in the current Prius.

The report comes from Japanese newspaper Nikkei, which, citing unnamed sources, says Toyota and battery partner Panasonic will increase lithium-ion battery output capacity to 200,000 units a year.

Nearly all plug-in vehicles depend on lithium-ion batteries. Nickel metal hydride, which powered the first generation of hybrids, are cheaper, but are clearly on the way out.  (go to article)

CNN Money -- About 80% of the 1,000 people Bankrate surveyed said they have not increased their discretionary spending in response to falling gas prices this year.

erhaps it's because prices have been choppy?

Gas prices rose for 34 straight days at the beginning of the year, then fell through most of March and April. They have since risen again slightly. That said, gas is still cheaper compared to a year ago. As of Friday, a gallon of unleaded gasoline cost $3.62, according to AAA. That's about 10 cents lower than the same time last year.

Economists have welcomed this year's lower gas prices as an inadvertent stimulus. Many have said that cheaper gas could lessen the blow from the higher payroll taxes that went into effect at the start of the year.  (go to article)

USA Today -- General Motors is still in the "early innings" of its recovery, but it won't be long before it rejoins the S&P 500 largest companies and gets its bond rating back to investment grade, GM CEO Dan Akerson said Saturday.

Speaking at the commencement for business graduates at Notre Dame, Akerson noted GM's 13 consecutive profitable quarters and progress since its 2009 bankruptcy filing.

In prepared remarks, he said recovery has been built on "pillars are to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles, differentiate and strengthen our brands, maintain a fortress balance sheet and pursue profitable growth around the world."

Akerson, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, says GM is benchmarking against the world's best, especially when it comes to its Cadillac brand. GM has made Cadillac ...  (go to article)

msn auto -- Chances are it's been a few years since you bought a new car. In those years, 40 mpg has become the new 30 mpg, as smaller conventional cars are increasingly able to crack the magic 40 mpg barrier on the highway. And if you consider hybrids, 40 mpg is downright mainstream.

So, should you dump your current ride and buy a 40 mpg car? Sounds like a silly question. Who wouldn't love to pass up the pump on a more frequent basis and save money in the process? Let's consider all the costs and capability trade-offs to see if you'd do better to stick with Old Faithful out in the driveway for a couple more years or choose a new vehicle that gets close to 40 mpg.  (go to article)

MarketWatch -- U.S. crude-oil futures slipped Monday, pulling back from gains in the previous session after a firmer view of the economy by consumers raised prospects for energy demand.

Crude oil for June delivery shed 183 cents to $95.84 a barrel in electronic trade during Asian hours.

Oil prices last week ended down by 2 cents a barrel.

The contract on Friday rose 86 cents, or 0.9%, to end at $96.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after preliminary consumer-sentiment data in May rose to its highest level in nearly six years. Separately, leading indicators in April showed the U.S. economy was still expanding.

The S&P 500 Index on Friday bounced to an all-time high after the release of the economic data, and the rally in the benchmark equity index “seems to have once again inspired ...  (go to article)

muskogeephoenix.com -- ..Steam-electric power plants account for more than half of all toxic pollutants discharged into America’s streams, rivers and lakes. Discharges from these plants often include mercury, arsenic, lead and selenium, pollutants that have been linked to neurological damage, cancer and damage to the circulatory system, kidneys and liver.

Toxic heavy metals like those targeted by the proposed rules do not break down in the environment. The accumulation of the pollutants contribute to the contamination of waterway sediments, impacting aquatic life and wildlife.

EPA officials estimate the rules would reduce discharges by 470 million to 2.62 billion pounds a year. They also would reduce water use by 50 billion to 103 billion gallons annually.

The EPA estimates most coal-fired power plants would  (go to article)

Reuters -- WATFORD CITY, North Dakota (Reuters) - In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting."

It's not that they lack water, like Texas and California. They are swimming in it, and it is free for the taking. Yet as the state's Bakken shale fields have grown, so has the fight over who has the right to tap into the multimillion-dollar market to supply water to the energy sector.

North Dakota now accounts for over 10 percent of U.S. energy output, and production could double over the next decade. The state draws water from the Missouri River and aquifers for its hydraulic fracturing, the process also known as fracking and the key that has unlocked America's abundant shale  (go to article)

cnbc -- Imagine a world where leftover corn, wheat and wood chips can be used to power your car.

That's the aim of cellulosic ethanol, a budding sector of the renewable fuel industry that finds itself struggling to reassert itself in a world of renewed popularity for oil and gas. The process aims to transform agriculture waste, most of which would normally be discarded, into a renewable source of fuel.

The process is heralded by ethanol advocates as a way to revive interest in a sector whose profile has declined recently. With the U.S. producing more natural gas and shale -and with critics questioning the wisdom of using food to power cars -enthusiasm for biofuels has fallen.

Still, the world's largest economy produced about 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol, according to data from the  (go to article)

TODAY'S ZAMAN -- A triple pipeline project is to be constructed to carry northern Iraqi oil and natural gas to the Turkish border, according to the Habertürk daily.The triple pipeline will consist of two oil pipelines, which will carry 1.5 million barrels of oil on a daily basis, and a natural gas pipeline.

Each of the three pipelines will have different starting points in northern Iraq but will be joined together in the Silopi district of Turkey. The twin oil pipelines are expected to be extended further in Turkey to carry oil to international markets via other pipelines that exist and are planned.

Meanwhile, it had been announced earlier that Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC) had partnership talks with Exxon Mobil to search for and produce oil in six fields in northern Iraq.  (go to article)

The Motley Fool -- Most people don't realize how much GM actually took from taxpayers, and how little it's given back. If I told you GM has repaid only $6.7 billion out of the $49.5 billion in loans it was given, would you be surprised? If I told you the expected loss to the U.S. Treasury of roughly $12 billion isn't even a fraction of the real cost, would you believe me? If not, you might be in for a nasty surprise.  (go to article)

EurekAlert! -- Researchers have engineered a strain of electricity-producing bacteria that can grow using hydrogen gas as its sole electron donor and carbon dioxide as its sole source of carbon. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst report their findings at the 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

"This represents the first result of current production solely on hydrogen," says Amit Kumar, a researcher on the study who, along with his co-authors are part of the Lovley Lab Group at the university.

Under the leadership of Derek Lovley the lab group has been studying Geobacter bacteria since Lovley first isolated Geobacter metallireducens in sand sediment from the Potomac River in 1987. Geobacter species are of interest because of their bioremediation, bioenerg  (go to article)

The Taos News -- MORA — The Mora County Commission’s April 29 ban on the extraction of oil and gas within its jurisdiction has raised some eyebrows around the industry and region.

Oil and gas companies seek access to once impenetrable geologic fortresses that guard precious domestic fuel deposits, and political heavyweights are forced to weigh in at local and federal levels.

Claiming to be the “first county” in the nation to block oil and gas extraction, the Mora County Commission passed the ordinance titled the Mora “Community Bill of Rights” or “Mora County Community Water Rights Local Self-Governance.”  (go to article)

Go Erke -- What do the Chevrolet Cruze, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Mazda6 have in common? Generally, not much.

But this year all three vehicles will be offered with optional diesel engines, an unprecedented proliferation of a technology traditionally offered by German automakers.

"There's no shortage of manufacturers investing in (diesel engines)," said Jeremy Acevedo, an industry analyst with Edmunds.com. "Now, they just need to resolve its image. For a lot of consumers here in America, they think of loud, gurgling cars pluming smoke."

Today's diesel is a far cry from Grandpa's. Billed as "clean" or, as Jeep calls it, "eco," modern diesel fuel is an ultra-low-sulfur formulation with dramatically lower emissions than previous-generation diesels while also offering a peppier driving experience and up  (go to article)

USA Today - One million plug-ins -- In 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama promised 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015. It seemed like a typical campaign-trail promise, but Obama stuck to it, reiterating the promise in his 2011 State of the Union speech.

Seems like the campaign promise will come up a bit short.

Despite numerous federal, state and local tax incentives, plug-in sales have trickled. Between December 2010, when the first Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf plug-ins went on sale, and April 2013, U.S. shoppers have bought just more than 95,000 plug-in cars, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association — this despite more than 10 plug-in cars on the market in at least some states.

A million plug-ins were "pie-in-the-sky," CNW Marketing Research President Art Spinella said.  (go to article)

ABC -- It is something none of us like to see... the price of gas on the rise.

Our area has been hit hard by rising gas prices.

Two large oil refineries in Chicago are temporarily closed for maintenance and accidents at other Midwest refineries have sent gas prices above four dollars a gallon in some places.

Many of us are already making plans for the long holiday weekend coming up.

But these rising gas prices could put a dent in some of our travel plans.

We met a few cross country travelers to see how the increase in gas prices is affecting their chance for fun.

Some travelers are already hitting the road and getting a head start to Memorial Day weekend.

But everywhere you look, gas prices are on the rise.

And while some drivers are trying not to let the rising gas prices get them down,   (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Enron Corp.’s 2001 collapse revealed the extent of its manipulation of spot gas prices. Twelve years later, European Union regulators may discover energy traders never learned the lessons of the scandal. BP Plc (BP/), Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Platts were visited by EU inspectors last week over allegations they “colluded in reporting distorted prices” to manipulate the published prices of oil and biofuel products, the European Commission in Brussels said after the raids. Shell, London-based BP and Statoil ASA (STL), three of Europe’s biggest oil explorers, are under investigation for potential manipulation of prices in the $3.4 trillion-a-year global crude market. The involvement of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. (MHFI)’s Platts, which publishes pricing data, hearkens back to other pric  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- Prices of many commodities are down this year, but U.S. oil futures have rallied. Skeptics say the mismatch is a sign of trouble. U.S. benchmark crude-oil futures ended Friday at $96.02, up 4.6% since the start of 2013. Oil is a standout in a mostly dismal year for commodities, as the Dow Jones-UBS UBSN.VX +1.65% Commodity Index has fallen 5.6%. The decline has been even steeper for gold, copper and other former darlings. Oil isn't a gusher compared with stocks, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is up 16% this year. But some analysts and investors say oil's rise is remarkable because it came despite several factors that often push prices lower. For example, U.S. economic growth is tepid, domestic oil stockpiles are at their highest in more than three decades, the unemployment  (go to article)

Washington Post -- "...the public is very misinformed on the issue, with the average American believing that scientists are split 50/50 on the cause of global warming."
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Guardian Newspapers Limited -- Bankers’ accusations of trader price-rigging are fuelled by revenge — the real fixers are in OPEC

The bankers have finally got their revenge. Oil traders claim that influential bankers, furious that that their sector has been squeezed by regulators since the 2008 crash, have persuaded Brussels that oil traders should no longer be able to operate without the same rigorous rules. According to the bankers, oil traders behave worse than money brokers. And so the Eurocrats raided the offices of BP, Shell and Platts, comparing their investigation into oil price-rigging with the one into the bankers’ Libor scandal.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- The Coast Guard will kick off hearings Monday on how a Royal Dutch Shell PLC drill barge used for Arctic Ocean exploratory drilling ended up aground off a remote Alaska island.

The Kulluk was under tow and bound from the Aleutian Islands' Dutch Harbor to a Seattle shipyard when it ran into rough Gulf of Alaska water. It broke from its towing vessel, and after four days of futile attempted hookups, ran aground New Year's Eve in shallow water off Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak Island.
 (go to article)

Associated Press -- Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday.

Officials did not have a formal confirmation or any specifics on the condition, but based on the accounts of authorities and witnesses on the scene, they are confident the issue was medical, according to Pokey Harris, Washington County's director of emergency management. "There is no reason to believe this was intentional," she said.
 (go to article)

motley fool -- Most people don't realize how much GM actually took from taxpayers, and how little it's given back. If I told you GM has repaid only $6.7 billion out of the $49.5 billion in loans it was given, would you be surprised? If I told you the expected loss to the U.S. Treasury of roughly $12 billion isn't even a fraction of the real cost, would you believe me? If not, you might be in for a nasty surprise.

Consider that the only true loan GM received from the U.S. government was for $6.7 billion at 7% interest, which it has since repaid. The majority of the nearly $50 billion was in stock purchases by the U.S. Treasury at a price that GM didn't lose money when recently rebuying shares.

Also consider that GM was "gifted" tax losses from the "Old GM" corporation in amounts of $45 billion.  (go to article)

The Motley Fool -- The gushing oil well at Spindletop Dome in Beaumont, Texas, is one of the most iconic images in the history of oil. When the well hit paydirt, oil spewed 150 feet into the air at a staggering rate of 100,000 barrels per day.

We've come a long way since that Spindletop gusher 112 years ago, and today's industry faces greater challenges finding new sources that can be sold at a reasonable rate of return.

On a recent conference call, Core Laboratories CEO David Demshur stated that outside some of the best spots in the U.S., oil producers in the U.S. will slow down exploration if oil prices are to remain below $90 for a sustained amount of time. Let's look at a few factors that might give some credence to Demshur's claim...  (go to article)

Smitsonian -- Visions of driverless cars zipping around on the highways of the future are nothing new. Visions of automated highways date back to at least the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and the push-button driverless car was a common dream depicted in such midcentury utopian artifacts as 1958's Disneyland TV episode “Magic Highway, U.S.A.” But here in the 21st century there’s a growing sense that the driverless car might actually (fingers crossed, hope to die) be closer than we think. And thanks to the progress being made by companies like Google (not to mention just about every major car company), some even believe that driverless vehicles could become a mainstream reality within just five years.  (go to article)

Business Insider -- Canada's oil sand mines will eventually produce up to 2 trillion barrels of oil and what that could mean for the environment has been debated for years. What's often overlooked though is a coke byproduct that results from refining the tar-like bitumen of the oil sands into oil.

Coke is a low-quality type of coal and the Marathon Petroleum plant in Detroit has made overlooking its role in the oil sands debate impossible to ignore. The refinery was built on the Detroit River more than 70 years ago but began refining Canadian oil sand deliveries just last November.

The coke waste started accumulating then. The New York Times writes that now the mound of coke towers three stories above the street, covers an entire city block, and is owned by Koch Carbon controlled by David and Charles Koch.  (go to article)

http://www.fivecentnickel.com -- Don’t ride your brakes. Driving with your foot on the brake not only wears out your brakes, but can also reduce fuel efficiency by 35%. Take your foot off the brake, and you can save the equivalent of $1.35/gallon.

Drive more smoothly. By accelerating and decelerating smoothly, you can improve your mileage by 33% on the highway and 5% around town. This works out to an equivalent of $0.68/gallon. See “Hack Your MPG” for my experience with driving smarter to save gas.

(tie) Check your air filter. Having a clean air filter can improve mileage by as much as 10%, or an equivalent of $0.39/gallon.
 (go to article)

Dallas Morning News -- Flower Mound resident Jay Squyres is passionate about going green.

He’s a proud owner of one of the first Tesla electric vehicles in the Dallas area. The car has “NO OPEC” emblazoned on the license plate.

But his strong — some might say extreme — commitment to solar energy has put him at odds with his homeowners association. It’s also prompted some officials to consider whether new regulations are needed to govern solar panels in residential areas.

Squyres is unapologetic about his quest to wean himself from fossil fuels.

“The state law says we can put [solar panels] on roofs and yards and they can’t stop them,” said the 44-year-old businessman, who was sued last year by the Wellington of Flower Mound Residential Association.

A mediated settlement was recently reached in the case.  (go to article)